GIST 


SWEDENBORG 


LIBRARY 

UNIVEW'.,i;i   W 


SAT4 


THE 
GIST  OF  SWEDENBORG 


COMPILED  BY 

JULIAN  K.  SMYTH 

AND 

WILLIAM  F.  WUNSCH 


THIS  BOOK  IS  PUBLISHED  BY  THE 
TRUSTEES  OF  THE  IUNGERICH  PUBLI- 
CATION FUND  WHICH  WAS  CREATED 
BY  THB  LATE  L.  C.  IUNGERICH  OF 
PHILADELPHIA 


J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 

PHILADELPHIA 


COPYRIGHT,  I92O,  BY  THE  TRUSTEES  OF 

THE   IUNGERICH   PUBLICATION   FUND 

PHILADELPHIA,   PA. 


THE  PLATES  FOR  THIS  EDITION  ARE  USED 
BY  SPECIAL  PERMISSION  OF  THE  TRUSTEES 
OF  THE  IUNGERICH  PUBLICATION  FUND. 


FOREWORD 


The  reason  for  a  compilation  such  as  is 
here  presented  should  be  obvious.  Sweden- 
borg's  theological  writings  comprise  some 
thirty  or  more  substantial  volumes,  the  result 
of  the  most  concentrated  labor  extending  over 
a  period  of  twenty-seven  years.  To  study  these 
writings  in  their  whole  extent,  to  see  them  in 
their  minute  unfoldment  out  of  the  Word  of 
God,  is  a  work  of  years.  It  is  doubtful  if  there 
is  a  phase  of  man's  religious  experience  for 
which  an  interpretation  is  not  here  to  be  found. 
Notwithstanding  this  immense  sweep  of  doc- 
trine there  are  certain  vital,  fundamental  truths 
on  which  it  all  rests: — the  Christ-God,  Man  a 
spiritual  being,  the  warfare  of  Regeneration, 
Marriage,  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  the  Life  of 
Charity  and  Faith,  the  Divine  Providence, 
Death  and  the  Future  Life,  the  Church.  We 
have  endeavored  to  press  within  the  small 
compass  of  this  book  passages  which  give 
the  gist  of  Swedenborg's  teachings  on 
these  subjects. 

The  compilers  would  gladly  have  made 
room  for  the  interpretative  and  philosophical 


teachings  which  contribute  so  much  to  the 
content  and  form  of  Swedenborg's  theology; 
but  they  have  confined  their  effort  to  setting 
forth  briefly  and  clearly  the  positive  spiritual 
teachings,  where  these  seemed  most  packed 
with  religious  meaning  and  moment. 

The    translation    of    the    passages    here 
brought  together  has  been  carefully  revised. 

JULIAN  K.  SMYTH. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


Emanuel  Swedenborg  was  born  at  Stock- 
holm, January  29,  1688. 

A  devout  home  (the  father  was  a  Luth- 
eran clergyman,  and  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Skara)  stimulated  in  the  boy  the  nature  which 
was  to  become  so  active  in  his  culminating 
life-work.  A  university  education  at  Upsala, 
however,  and  studies  for  five  years  in  England, 
France,  Holland  and  Germany,  brought  other 
interests  into  play  first.  The  earliest  of  these 
were  mathematics  and  astronomy,  in  the  pur- 
suit of  which  he  met  Flamsteed  and  Halley. 
His  gift  for  the  detection  and  practical  em- 
ployment of  general  laws  soon  carried  him 
much  farther  afield  in  the  sciences.  Metal- 
lurgy, geology,  a  varied  field  of  invention, 
chemistry,  as  well  as  his  duties  as  an  Assessor 
on  the  Board  of  Mines  and  of  a  legislator  in 
the  Diet,  all  engaged  him,  with  an  immediate 
outcome  in  his  work,  and  often  with  results  in 
contributions  to  human  knowledge  which  are 
gaining  .recognition  only  now.  The  Principia 
and  two  companion  volumes,  dedicated  to  his 
patron,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  crowned  his 
versatile  productions  in  the  physical  sciences. 


Academies  of  science,  at  home  and  abroad, 
were  electing  him  to  membership. 

Conspicuous  in  Swedenborg's  thought  all 
along  was  the  premise  that  there  is  a  God  and 
the  presupposition  of  that  whole  element  in 
life  which  we  call  the  spiritual.  As  he  pushed 
his  studies  into  the  fields  of  physiology  and 
psychology,  this  premised  realm  of  the  spirit 
became  the  express  goal  of  his  researches. 
Some  of  his  most  valuable  and  most  startling 
discoveries  came  in  these  fields.  Outstanding 
are  a  work  on  The  Brain  and  two  on  the 
Animal  Kingdom  (kingdom  of  the  anima,  or 
soul).  As  his  gaze  sought  the  soul,  however, 
in  the  light  in  which  he  had  more  and  more 
successfully  beheld  all  his  subjects  for  fifty-five 
years,  she  eluded  direct  knowledge.  He  was 
increasingly  baffled,  until  a  new  light  broke  in 
on  him.  Then  he  was  borne  along,  in  a  pro- 
found humiliation  of  his  intellectual  ambi- 
tions, by  another  way.  For  when  the  new 
light  steadied,  he  had  undergone  a  personal 
religious  experience,  the  rich  journals  of 
which  he  himself  never  published.  But  what 
was  of  public  concern,  his  consciousness  was 
opened  into  the  world  of  the  spirit,  so  that  he 
could  observe  its  facts  and  laws  as,  for  so  long, 
he  had  observed  those  of  the  material  world, 
and  in  its  own  world  could  receive  a  revela- 
tion of  the  doctrines  of  man's  spiritual  life. 

It  was  now,  for  the  first  time,  too,  that 
he  gave  a  deep  consideration  to  the  condition 
of  the  Christian  Church,  revealed  in  other- 
world  judgment  to  be  one  of  spiritual  devas- 
tation and  impotency.  To  serve  in  the 


revelation  of  "  doctrine  for  a  New  Church  " 
became  his  Divinely  appointed  work.  He 
forwent  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  science, 
gave  up  his  assessorship,  cleared  his  desk  of 
everything  but  the  Scriptures.  He  beheld  in 
the  Word  of  God  a  spiritual  meaning,  as  he 
did  a  spiritual  world  in  the  world  of  phe- 
nomena. In  revealing  both  of  these  the  Lord, 
he  said,  made  His  Second  Coming.  For  the 
rest  of  his  long  life  Swedenborg  gave  himself 
with  unremitting  labor  but  with  a  saving  calm 
to  this  commanding  cause,  publishing  his  great 
Latin  volumes  of  Scripture  interpretation  and 
of  theological  teaching  at  Amsterdam  or  Lon- 
don, at  first  anonymously,  and  distributing 
them  to  clergy  and  universities.  The  titles  of 
his  principal  theological  works  appear  in  the 
following  compilation  from  them.  Upon  his 
death-bed  this  herald  of  a  new  day  for  Chris- 
tianity solemnly  affirmed  the  reality  of  his 
experience  and  the  reception  by  him  of  his 
teaching  from  the  Lord. 

Swedenborg  died  in  London,  March  29, 
1772.  In  1908  his  remains  were  removed 
from  the  Swedish  Church  in  that  city  to 
the  cathedral  at  Upsala,  where  they  lie  in 
a  monument  erected  to  his  memory  by  the 
Swedish  Parliament. 

WILLIAM  F.  WUNSCH. 

Documents  Concerning  the  Life  and  Character  of  Swedenborg 
(3  vols.)  1875-1877,  R.  L.  Tafel,  is  the  main  collection  of  biograph- 
ical material;  The  Life  and  Mission  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg, 
1883,  Benjamin  Worcester,  and  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  His  Life, 
Teachings  and  Influence,  1907,  George  Trobridge,  are  two  of  the 
better  known  biographies. 


THE  GIST  OF  SWEDENBORG 

"At  this  day  nothing  but  the  self-evidenced  rea- 
son of  love  will  re-establish  the  Church." — Canons, 
Prologue. 


GOD  THE  LORD 


ONE  AND  INFINITE 

GOD  is  One,  and  Infinite.  The  true  qual- 
ity of  the  Infinite  does  not  appear;  for 
the  human  mind,  however  highly  analy- 
tical and  exalted,  is  itself  finite,  and  the  finite- 
ness  in  it  cannot  be  laid  aside.  It  is  not  fitted, 
therefore,  to  see  the  Infinity  of  God,  and 
thus  God,  as  He  is  in  Himself,  but  can  see 
God  from  behind  in  shadow;  as  it  is  said  of 
Moses,  when  he  asked  to  see  God,  that  he  was 
placed  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock,  and  saw  His 
hinder  side.  It  is  enough  to  acknowledge 
God  from  things  finite,  that  is,  created,  in 
which  He  is  infinitely. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n,  28 


"INTO  HIS  MARVELLOUS  LIGHT' 

WE  read  in  the  Word  that  Jehovah  God 
dwells  in  light  inaccessible.  Who,  then, 
could  approach  Him,  unless  He  had 
come  to  dwell  in  accessible  light,  that  is,  unless 
He  had  descended  and  assumed  a  Humanity 
and  in  it  had  become  the  Light  of  the  world? 
Who  cannot  see  that  to  approach  Jehovah  the 
Father  in  His  light  is  as  impossible  as  to  take 
the  wings  of  the  morning  and  to  fly  with  them 
to  the  sun  ? 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n,  176 


GOD 


THE  CHRIST-GOD 

WE   ought   to   have   faith   in   God   the 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  because  that  is 
faith  in  the  visible  God  in  Whom  is  the 
Invisible ;  and  faith  in  the  visible  God,  Who  is 
at  once  Man  and  God,  enters  into  man.    For 
while  faith  is  spiritual  in  essence  it  is  natural 
in  form,  for  everything  spiritual,  in  order  to 
be  anything  with  a  man,  is  received  by  him 
in  what  is  natural. 

— True   Christian  Religion,   n.   339 


Man's  conjunction  with  the  Lord  is  not 
with  His  supreme  Divine  Being  itself,  but  with 
His  Divine  Humanity,  and  by  this  with  the 
supreme  Divine  Being;  for  man  can  have  no 
idea  whatever  of  the  supreme  Divine  Being  of 
the  Lord,  utterly  transcending  his  thought  as 
it  does;  but  of  His  Divine  Human  Being  he 
can  have  an  idea.  Hence  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  John  says  that  no  one  has  at  any  time 
seen  God  except  the  only-begotten  Son,  and 
that  there  is  no  approach  to  the  Father  save 
by  Him.  For  the  same  reason  He  is  called 
a  Mediator. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  4211 


THE  LORD 


GOD-MAN 

IN  the  Lord,  God  and  Man  are  not  two  but 
one  Person,  yea,  altogether  one,  as  soul  and 
body  are.  This  is  plain  in  many  of  the 
Lord's  own  utterances ;  as  that  the  Father  and 
He  are  one ;  that  all  things  of  the  Father  are 
His,  and  all  His  the  Father's;  that  He  is  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  Him;  that  all 
things  are  given  into  His  hand;  that  He  has 
all  powrer;  that  whosoever  believes  in  Him 
has  eternal  life;  that  He  is  God  of  heaven 
and  earth. 

— Doctrine  Concerning  the  Lord,  n,  60 


There  is  one  God,  and  the  Lord  is  He,  His 
Divinity  and  Humanity  being  one  Person. 

— Divine  Providence,  n,  122 


They  who  think  of  the  Lord's  Humanity, 
and  not  at  the  same  time  of  His  Divinity,  by 
no  means  allow  the  expression  "  Divine  Hu- 
manity " ;  for  they  think  of  the  Humanity  by 
itself  and  of  the  Divinity  by  itself,  which  is 
like  thinking  of  man  apart  from  his  soul  or 
life,  which,  however,  is  no  conception  of  man, 
still  less  of  the  Lord. 

— Apocalypse  Explained,  n,  26 


GOD 


WHY  HE  CAME 

THE  Lord  from  eternity,  Who  is  Jehovah, 
came  into  the  world  to  subdue  the  hells 
and  to  glorify  His  Humanity.    Without 
Him  no  mortal  could  have  been  saved;  and 
they  are  saved  who  believe  in  Him. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  2 

The  Lord  came  into  the  world  to  save 
the  human  race  which  would  otherwise  have 
perished  in  eternal  death.  This  salvation  the 
Lord  effected  by  subjugating  the  hells,  which 
infested  every  man  coming  into  the  world  and 
going  out  of  the  world,  and  by  glorifying  His 
Humanity;  for  so  He  can  hold  the  hells  sub- 
dued to  eternity.  The  subjugation  of  the  hells, 
and  the  glorification  at  the  same  time  of  His 
Humanity,  were  effected  by  temptations  let 
into  the  Humanity  He  had  from  the  mother, 
and  by  unbroken  victories.  His  passion  on 
the  cross  was  the  last  temptation  and  com- 
plete victory. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  n.  293 


HOW  HE  CAME 

BECAUSE,  from  His  essence,  God  burned 
with  the  love  of  uniting  Himself  to  man, 
it  was  necessary  that  He  should  cover 
Himself  around  with  a  body  adapted  to  re- 
ception and  conjunction.     He  therefore  de- 
scended  and    assumed    a   human   nature   in 


THE  LORD  5 

pursuance  of  the  order  established  by  Him 
from  the  creation  of  the  world.  That  is,  He 
was  to  be  conceived  by  a  power  produced  from 
Himself;  He  was  to  be  carried  in  the  womb; 
He  was  to  be  born,  and  then  to  grow  in  wisdom 
and  in  love,  and  so  was  to  approach  to  union 
with  His  Divine  origin.  Thus  God  became 
Man,  and  Man  God. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  838 

THE  LIFE  ON  EARTH 

THE  Lord  had  at  first  a  human  nature 
from  the  mother,  of  which  He  gradually 
divested  Himself  while  He  was  in  the 
world.  Accordingly  He  kept  experiencing 
two  states:  a  state  of  humiliation  or  privation, 
as  long  and  as  far  as  He  was  conscious  in  the 
human  nature  from  the  mother;  and  a  state 
of  glorification  or  union  with  the  Divine,  as 
long  and  as  far  as  He  was  conscious  in  the 
Humanity  received  from  the  Father.  In  the 
state  of  humiliation  He  prayed  to  the  Father 
as  to  One  other  than  Himself;  but  in  the  state 
of  glorification  He  spoke  with  the  Father  as 
with  Himself.  In  this  state  He  said  that  the 
Father  was  in  Him,  and  He  in  the  Father,  and 
that  the  Father  and  He  were  one. 

The  Lord  consecutively  put  off  the  human 
nature  assumed  from  the  mother,  and  put  on 
a  Humanity  from  the  Divine  in  Himself, 
which  is  the  Divine  Humanity  and  the  Son 
of  God. 

— Doctrine  Concerning  the  Lord,  nn.  29,  35 


6  GOD 


THE  LOVE  OF  HIS  LIFE 

WHEN  the  Lord  was  in  the  world,  His 
life  was  altogether  the  life  of  a  love  for 
the    whole    human    race,    which    He 
burned  to   save   forever.     That  life   was   of 
the  intensest  love  by  which  He  united  Himself 
to  the  Divine  and   the   Divine  to  Himself. 
For  being  itself,  or  Jehovah,  is  pure  mercy 
from  love  for  the  whole  human  race ;  and  that 
life  was  one  of  sheer  love,  as  it  can  never  be 
with  any  man. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  2253 


"  COME  UNTO  ME  " 

DO  you,  my  friend,  flee  evil,  and  do  good, 
and  believe  in  the  Lord  with  your 
whole  heart  and  with  your  whole  soul, 
and  the  Lord  will  love  you,  and  give  you  love 
for  doing,  and  faith  for  believing.    Then  will 
you  do  good  from  love,  and  from  a  faith  which 
is  confidence  will  you  believe.    If  you  perse- 
vere in  this,  a  reciprocal  conjunction  will  take 
place,  and  one  that  is  perpetual,  indeed  is  sal- 
vation itself,  and  everlasting  life. 

— True.  Christian  Religion,  n.  484 


THE  LORD 


THE   TRINITY;   THE   FULNESS    OF 
HIS  BEING 

THEY  who  are  truly  men  of  the  Church, 
that  is,  who  are  in  love  to  the  Lord  and  in 
charity  toward  the  neighbor,  know  and 
acknowledge  a  Trine.  Still,  they  humble 
themselves  before  the  Lord,  and  adore  Him 
alone,  inasmuch  as  they  know  that  there  is  no 
approach  to  the  Divine  Itself,  called  the 
Father,  but  by  the  Son ;  and  that  all  that  is  holy, 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  proceeds  from  Him. 
When  they  are  in  this  idea,  they  adore  no  other 
than  Him,  by  Whom  and  from  Whom  are  all 
things ;  consequently  they  adore  One. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  2329 

God  is  one  in  essence  and  in  person.  This 
God  is  the  Lord.  The  Divinity  itself,  which  is 
called  Jehovah  "  the  Father,"  is  the  Lord 
from  eternity.  The  Divine  Humanity  is  "  the 
Son  "  begotten  from  His  Divine  from  eternity, 
and  born  in  the  world.  The  proceeding  Divin- 
ity is  "  the  Holy  Spirit." 

: — Divine  Providence,  n.  157 


MAN 

"Lord,  what  is  man  that  Thou   art  mindful  of  him; 
And  the  son  of  man  that  Thou  visitest  him  ?" 

Psalm,  vin,  4 


MAN  ii 


GOD'S  UNRELAXED  EFFORT 

THE  object  of  creation  was  an  angelic 
heaven  from  the  human  race;  in  other 
words,  mankind,  in  whom  God  might  be 
able  to  dwell  as  in  His  residence.  For  this 
reason  man  was  created  a  form  of  Divine  order. 
God  is  in  him,  and  as  far  as  he  lives  according 
to  Divine  order,  fully  so ;  but  if  he  does  not  live 
according  to  Divine  order,  still  God  is  in  him, 
but  in  his  highest  parts,  endowing  him  with  the 
ability  to  understand  truth  and  to  will  what  is 
good.  But  as  far  as  man  lives  contrary  to 
order,  so  far  he  shuts  up  the  lower  parts  of  his 
mind  or  spirit,  and  prevents  God  from  de- 
scending and  filling  them  with  His  presence. 
Then  God  is  in  him,  but  he  is  not  in  God. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  nn.  66,  70 


AN  INSTRUMENT  OF  LIFE 

MAN  is  an  instrument  of  life,  and  God 
alone  is  life.  God  pours  His  life  into 
His  instrument  and  every  part  of  him, 
as  the  sun  pours  its  heat  into  a  tree  and  every 
part  of  it.  God  also  gives  man  to  feel  this  life 
in  himself  as  his  own.  God  wills  that  he  should 
do  so,  that  man  may  live  as  of  himself  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  order,  which  are  as  many 
as  there  are  precepts  in  the  Word,  and  may 
dispose  himself  to  receive  the  love  of  God. 
But  still  God  perpetually  holds  with  His  fin- 
ger the  perpendicular  above  the  scales,  and 


12  MAN 

regulates,  but  never  violates  by  compulsion, 
man's  free  decision.  Man's  free  will  is  from 
this:  that  he  feels  life  in  himself  as  his,  and 
God  leaves  him  so  to  feel,  that  reciprocal  con- 
junction may  take  place  between  Him  and  man. 
— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  504 


"ABIDE  IN  ME" 

MAN  is  so  created  that  he  can  be  more 
and  more  closely  united  to  the  Lord. 
He  is  so   united  not  by  knowledge 
alone,  nor  by  intelligence  alone,  nor  even  by 
wisdom  alone,  but  by  a  life  in  accordance  with 
these.    The  more  closely  he  is  united  to  the 
Lord,  the  wiser  and  happier  he  becomes,  the 
more  distinctly  he  seems  to  himself  to  be  his 
own,  and  the  more  clearly  he  perceives  that  he 
is  the  Lord's. 

— Divine  Providence,  nn.  32  et  al. 


TWO  MINDS:  TWO  WORLDS 

MAN  is  so  created  as  to  live  simulta- 
neously in  the  natural  world  and  in  the 
spiritual  world.    Thus  he  has  an  inter- 
nal and  an  external  nature  or  mind ;  by  the 
former  living  in  the  spiritual  world,  by  the 
latter  in  the  natural  world. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  n.  36 


MAN  13 


INALIENABLE  POWERS 

THERE  are  in  man  from  the  Lord  two 
capacities  by  which  the  human  being  is 
distinguished  from  the  beasts.  One  capa- 
city is  the  ability  to  understand  what  is  true 
and  what  is  good.  It  is  called  rationality,  and 
is  a  capacity  of  his  understanding.  The  other 
capacity  is  the  ability  to  do  the  true  and  the 
good.  It  is  called  freedom,  and  is  a  power  of 
the  will.  By  virtue  of  his  rationality,  man  can 
think  what  he  pleases,  as  well  against  God 
as  with  Him,  and  with  his  neighbor  or  against 
his  neighbor.  He  can  also  will  and  do  what 
he  thinks;  and  when  he  sees  evil  and  fears 
punishment,  by  virtue  of  freedom  he  can  re- 
frain from  doing.  By  these  two  capacities 
man  is  man  and  is  distinguished  from  the 
beasts.  Man  has  these  twin  powers  from  the 
Lord,  and  they  are  from  Him  every  moment; 
nor  are  they  ever  taken  away,  for  if  they  were, 
man's  humanity  would  perish.  The  Lord  is  in 
these  two  powers  with  every  man,  with  the  evil 
as  well  as  the  good.  They  are  His  abiding- 
place  in  the  race.  Thence  it  is  that  every 
human  being,  evil  as  well  as  good,  lives 
to  eternity. 

— Divine  Love  and  Wisdom,  n.  240 


I4  MAN 


THE  DRAG  OF  HEREDITY 

MAN  inclines  to  the  nature  he  derives 
hereditarily,  and  lapses  into  it.    Thus 
he  strengthens  any  evil  in  it,  and  also 
adds  others  of  himself.    These  evils  are  quite 
opposed  to  the  spiritual  life.    They  destroy  it. 
Unless,  therefore,  a  man  receives  new  life  from 
the  Lord,  which  is  spiritual  life,  he  is  con- 
demned ;  for  he  wills  nothing  else  and  thinks 
nothing  else  than  concerns  him  and  the  world. 
— Heavenly  Doctrine,  n,  176 


LOVES  OF  SELF  AND  THE  WORLD 

THE  reason  why  the  love  of  self  and  the 
love  of  the  world  are  infernal  loves,  and 
yet  man  has  been  able  to  come  into  them, 
and  thus  to  ruin  will  and  understanding  in 
him,  is  as  follows :  By  creation  the  love  of  self 
and  the  love  of  the  world  are  heavenly  loves ; 
for  they  are  loves  of  the  natural  man  serving 
his  spiritual  loves,  as  a  foundation  does  a 
house.  From  the  love  of  self  and  the  world,  a 
man  wishes  well  by  his  body,  desires  food, 
clothing  and  habitation,  takes  thought  for  his 
household,  seeks  occupation  to  be  useful, 
wishes  also  for  obedience's  sake  to  be  honored 
according  to  the  dignity  of  the  thing  he  does, 
and  to  be  delighted  and  recreated  by  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  world; — yet  all  this  for  the  sake 
of  the  end,  which  must  be  use.  By  this  a  man 


MAN  15 

is  in  position  to  serve  the  Lord  and  to  serve 
the  neighbor.  But  when  there  is  no  love  of 
serving  the  Lord  and  the  neighbor,  but  only 
a  love  of  serving  oneself  at  the  world's  hands, 
then  from  being  heavenly  that  love  becomes 
infernal,  for  it  causes  a  man  to  sink  mind  and 
character  in  his  proprium,  or  what  is  his  own, 
which  in  itself  is  the  whole  of  evil. 

— Divine  Love  and  Wisdom,  n.  396 


THE  NEED  FOR  SELF-ACTION 

NO  one  can  cleanse  himself  of  evils  by 
his  own  power  and  abilities ;  but  neither 
can  this  be  done  without  the  power  and 
abilities  of  the  man,  used  as  his  own.  If  this 
strength  were  not  to  all  appearance  his  own, 
no  one  would  be  able  to  fight  against  the  flesh 
and  its  lusts,  which,  nevertheless,  is  enjoined 
upon  all  men.  He  would  not  think  of  com- 
bat. Because  man  is  a  rational  being,  he  must 
resist  evils  from  the  power  and  the  abilities 
given  him  by  the  Lord,  which  appear  to  him 
as  his  own ;  an  appearance  that  is  granted  for 
the  sake  of  regeneration,  imputation,  con- 
junction, and  salvation. 

• — True  Christian  Religion,  n,  438 


THE  WARFARE  OF  REGENERATION 

"  Blessed  be  the  Lord  my  strength, 
Who  teacheth  my  hands  to  war, 
And  my  fingers  to  fight: 
My  goodness,  and  my  fortress; 
My  high  tower  and  my  deliverer; 
My  shield,  and  He  in  whom  I  trust; 
Who  subdueth  my  people  under  me." 

— Psalm,  CXLIV,  i,  2 


THE  WARFARE  OF  REGENERATION  19 


" 


"  TO  HIM  THAT  OVERCOMETH 

BECAUSE  man  is  reformed  by  conflicts 
with  the  evils  of  his  flesh  and  by  victories 
over  them,  the  Son  of  Man  says  to  each 
of  the  seven  Churches,  that  He  will  give  gifts 
"  to  him  that  overcometh." 

—  True  Christian  Religion,  n.  610 

Without  moral  struggle  no  one  is  regener- 
ated, and  many  spiritual  wrestlings  succeed 
one  after  another.  For,  inasmuch  as  regenera- 
tion has  for  its  end  that  the  life  of  the  old  man 
may  die  and  the  new  and  heavenly  life  be  im- 
planted, there  will  unfailingly  be  combat.  The 
life  of  the  old  man  resists  and  is  unwilling  to 
be  extinguished,  and  the  life  of  the  new  man 
cannot  enter,  except  where  the  life  of  the  old 
has  been  extinguished.  From  this  it  is  plain 
that  there  is  combat,  and  ardent  combat,  be- 
cause for  life. 

—  Arcana  Gcelestia,  n.  8403 


REPENTANCE    AND    THE    REMIS- 
SION OF  SINS 

HE  who  would  be  saved,  must  confess  his 
sins,  and  do  repentance.    To  confess  sins 
is  to  know  evils,  to  see  them  in  oneself,  to 
acknowledge  them,  to  make  oneself  guilty  and 
condemn  oneself  on  account  of  them.    Done 
before  God,  this  is  to  confess  sins.    To  do  re- 


20  THE  WARFARE  OF 

pentance  is  to  desist  from  sins  after  one  has 
thus  confessed  them  and  from  a  humble  heart 
has  besought  forgiveness,  and  then  to  live  a 
new  life  according  to  the  precepts  of  charity 
and  faith. 

He  who  merely  acknowledges  generally 
that  he  is  a  sinner,  making  himself  guilty  of  all 
evils,  without  examining  himself, — that  is, 
without  seeing  his  sins, — makes  a  confession 
but  not  the  confession  of  repentance.  Inas- 
much as  he  does  not  know  his  evils,  he  lives 
as  before. 

One  who  lives  the  life  of  charity  and 
faith  does  repentance  daily.  He  reflects  upon 
the  evils  in  him,  acknowledges  them,  guards 
against  them,  and  beseeches  the  Lord  for  help. 
For  of  oneself  one  continually  lapses  toward 
evil;  but  he  is  continually  raised  up  by  the 
Lord  and  led  to  good, 

Repentance  of  the  mouth  and  not  of  the 
life  is  not  repentance.  Nor  are  sins  pardoned 
on  repentance  of  the  mouth,  but  on  repentance 
of  the  life.  Sins  are  constantly  pardoned  man 
by  the  Lord,  for  He  is  mercy  itself;  but  still 
they  adhere  to  man,  however  he  supposes  they 
have  been  remitted.  Nor  are  they  removed 
from  him  save  by  a  life  according  to  the  pre- 
cepts of  true  faith.  So  far  as  he  lives 
according  to  these  precepts,  sins  are  removed; 
and  so  far  as  they  are  removed,  so  far  they 
are  remitted. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  nn.  159-165 


REGENERATION  21 


TEMPTATION  AND  PRAYER 

WHEN  a  man  shuns  evils  as  sins,  he 
flees  them  because  they  are  contrary  to 
the  Lord  and  to  His  Divine  laws;  and 
then  he  prays  to  the  -Lord  for  help  and  for 
power  to  resist  them — a  power  which  is  never 
denied  when  it  is  asked.  By  these  two  means 
a  man  is  cleansed  of  evils.  He  cannot  be 
cleansed  of  evils  if  he  only  looks  to  the  Lord 
and  prays;  for  then,  after  he  has  prayed,  he 
believes  that  he  is  quite  without  sins,  or  that 
they  have  been  forgiven,  by  which  he  under- 
stands that  they  are  taken  away.  But  then  he 
still  remains  in  them;  and  to  remain  in  them  is 
to  increase  them.  Nor  are  evils  removed 
only  by  shunning  them ;  for  then  the  man  looks 
to  himself,  and  thereby  strengthens  the  origin 
of  evil,  which  was  that  he  turned  himself  back 
from  the  Lord  and  turned  to  himself. 

— The  Doctrine  Concerning  Charity,  n.  146 


THE  GREAT  ARENA 

IN  temptations  the  hells  fight  against  man, 
and  the  Lord  for  him.     To  every  falsity 
which  the  hells  inject,  there  is  an  answer 
from  the  Divine.     The  falsities  inflow  into 
the  outward  man,  the  answer  into  the  inward 
man,  coming  to  perception  scarcely  otherwise 
than  as  hope,  and  the  resulting  consolation,  in 


22  THE  WARFARE  OF 

which,  however,  there  is  a  multitude  of  things 
of  which  the  man  is  unaware. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  8159 

In  temptations  a  man  is  left,  to  all  appear- 
ance, to  himself  alone ;  yet  he  has  not  been  left 
alone,  for  God  is  then  most  present  in  his  in- 
most being,  and  upholds  him.  When  anyone 
overcomes  in  temptation,  therefore,  he  enters 
into  closer  union  with  God. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  126 


"  BY  LITTLE  AND  LITTLE  " 

WHEN  man  is  being  regenerated,  he  is 
not  regenerated  speedily  but  slowly. 
The  reason  is  that  all  things  which  he 
has  thought,  purposed  and  done  since  infancy, 
have  added  themselves  to  his  life  and  have 
come  to  constitute  it.  They  have  also  formed 
such  a  connection  among  themselves  that  no 
one  thing  can  be  removed  unless  all  are  at  the 
same  time.  Regeneration,  or  the  implantation 
of  the  life  of  heaven  in  man,  begins  in  his  in- 
fancy, and  continues  to  the  last  of  his  life  in 
the  world,  and  is  perfected  to  eternity. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  9334 


REGENERATION  23 


A  NEW  MAN 

WHEN  a  man  is  regenerated,  he  becomes 
altogether  another,  and  a  new,  man. 
While  his  appearance  and  his  speech 
are  the  same,  yet  his  mind  is  not;  for  his  mind 
is  then  open  toward  heaven,  and  there  dwell  in 
it  love  for  the  Lord,  and  charity  toward  the 
neighbor,  together  with  faith.  It  is  the  mind 
which  makes  another  and  a  new  man.  The 
change  of  state  cannot  be  perceived  in  man's 
body,  but  in  his  spirit.  When  it  [the  body]  is 
put  off  then  his  spirit  appears,  and  in  alto- 
gether another  form,  too,  when  he  has  been 
regenerated ;  for  it  has  then  a  form  of  love  and 
charity  with  inexpressible  beauty,  in  the  place 
of  the  earlier  form,  which  was  one  of  hatred 
and  cruelty  with  a  deformity  also  inexpressible. 
— Arcana  Goelestia,  n,  3212 


CHILDHOOD 

"  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven 
that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish." 

— Matthew,  xvin,  14 

Never  could  a  man  live, — certainly  not 
as  a  human  being, — unless  he  had  in  himself 
something  vital,  that  is,  some  innocence, 
neighborly  love,  and  mercy.  This  a  man  re- 
ceives from  the  Lord  in  infancy  and  child- 
hood. What  he  receives  then  is  treasured  up 
in  him,  and  is  called  in  the  Word  the  remnant 
or  remains,  which  are  of  the  Lord  alone  with 
him,  and  they  make  it  possible  for  him  truly 
to  be  a  man  on  reaching  adult  age.  These 
states  are  the  elements  of  his  regeneration, 
and  he  is  led  into  them;  for  the  Lord  works 
by  means  of  them.  These  remains  are  also 
called  "  the  living  soul  "  in  all  flesh. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  1050 

All  states  of  innocence  from  infancy  on, 
of  love  toward  parents,  brothers,  teachers  and 
friends;  of  charity  to  the  neighbor,  and  also 
of  mercy  to  the  poor  and  needy;  all  states  of 
goodness  and  truth,  with  their  goods  and 
truths,  impressed  otf  the  memory,  are  pre- 
served in  man  by  the  Lord,  and  are  stored 
up  unconsciously  to  himself  in  his  inter- 
nal man,  and  are  carefully  kept  from  evils 
and  falsities.  They  are  all  so  preserved  by 
the  Lord  that  not  the  smallest  of  them  is  lost. 
Every  state  from  infancy  even  to  extreme  old 


age  not  only  remains  in  another  life,  but  also 
returns.  Returning,  these  states  are  such  as 
they  were  during  a  man's  abode  in  the  world. 
Not  only  the  goods  and  truths,  stored  up  in  the 
memory,  remain  and  return,  but  likewise  all 
the  states  of  innocence  and  charity;  and  when 
states  of  evil  and  the  false,  or  of  wickedness 
and  phantasy  recur,  these  latter  states  are  attem- 
pered by  the  former  through  the  Divine  oper- 
ation of  the  Lord. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  561 


26 


PRAYER 

"  O  Thou  who  hearest  prayer ; 
Unto  Thee  shall  all  flesh  come." 

— Psalm,  LXV,  2 

PRAYER,  in  itself  considered,  is  speech 
with  God.  There  is  then  some  inward 
view  of  the  objects  of  the  prayer,  and 
answering  to  that  something  like  an  influx  into 
the  perception  or  thought.  Thus  there  is  a 
kind  of  opening  of  the  man's  interiors  toward 
God,  with  a  difference  according  to  the  man's 
state  and  according  to  the  nature  of  the  object 
of  the  prayer.  If  one  prays  out  of  love  and 
faith  and  only  about  and  for  things  heavenly 
and  spiritual,  then  there  appears  in  the  prayer 
something  like  revelation,  which  shows  itself 
in  the  affection  of  the  suppliant,  in  hope,  solace, 
or  an  inner  gladness. 

•. — Arcana  Goelestia,  n.  2535 


THE  SERVICE  OF  WORSHIP 

"  I  will  come  into  Thy  house  in  the  multitude  of 
Thy  mercy; 

In  Thy  fear  will  I  worship  toward  Thy  holy  temple." 

— Psalm,  v,  7 

ONE  should  not  omit  the  practice  of  ex- 
ternal worship.  Things  inward  are 
excited  by  external  worship ;  and  out- 
ward things  are  kept  in  holiness  by  external 
worship,  so  that  things  inward  can  flow  in. 
Moreover,  a  man  is  imbued  in  this  way  with 
knowledge,  and  prepared  to  receive  celestial 
things,  so  as  to  be  endowed  with  states  of  holi- 
ness, though  he  is  unaware  of  it.  These  states 
of  holiness  the  Lord  preserves  to  him  for  the 
use  of  eternal  life;  for  in  the  other  life  all 
one's  states  of  life  recur. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  1618 


28 


THE  SACRAMENTS 

BAPTISM  and  the  Holy  Supper  are  the 
holiest  acts  of  worship. 
Baptism  and  the  Holy  Supper  are  as  it 
were  two  gates,  through  which  a  man  is  intro- 
duced into  eternal  life.     After  the  first  gate 
there  is  a  plain,  which  he  must  traverse;  and 
the  second  is  the  goal  where  the  prize  is,  to 
which  he  directed  his  course;  for  the  palm  is 
not  given  until  after  the  contest,  nor  the  reward 
until  after  the  combat. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  nn,  667,  721 

I.  BAPTISM 

BAPTISM  was  instituted  for  a  sign  that 
a  man  is  of  the  Church  and  for  a  memo- 
rial that  he  is  to  be  regenerated.  For 
the  washing  of  baptism  is  no  other  than  spiri- 
tual washing,  which  is  regeneration.  All 
regeneration  is  effected  by  the  Lord  through 
truths  of  faith  and  a  life  according  to  them. 
Baptism,  therefore,  testifies  that  a  man  is  of  the 
Church  and  that  he  can  be  regenerated ;  for  it 
is  in  the  Church  that  the  Lord  is  acknowl- 
edged, Who  regenerates  man,  and  there  the 
Word  is,  where  are  truths  of  faith,  by  which 
is  regeneration. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  nn.  202,  203 

The  sign  of  the  cross  which  a  child  receives 
on  the  forehead  and  breast  at  baptism  is  a  sign 
of  inauguration  into  the  acknowledgment  and 
worship  of  the  Lord. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  682 


II.  THE  HOLY  SUPPER 

THE  Holy  Supper  was  instituted  that  by 
means  of  it  there  might  be  conjunction  of 
the  Church  with  heaven,  and  thus  with 
the  Lord.    When  one  takes  the  bread,  which 
is  the  Body,  one  is  conjoined  with  the  Lord  by 
the  good  of  love  to  Him,  from  Him ;  and  when 
one  takes  the  wine,  which  is  the  Blood,  one  is 
conjoined  to  the  Lord  by  the  good  of  faith  in 
Him,  from  Him. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  nn.  210,  213 

In  the  Holy  Supper  the  Lord  is  fully 
present,  both  as  to  His  glorified  Humanity, 
and  as  to  the  Divine.  And  because  He  is  fully 
present,  therefore  the  whole  of  His  redemption 
is;  for  where  the  Lord  the  Redeemer  is,  there 
redemption  is.  Therefore  all  who  observe  the 
Holy  Communion  worthily,  become  His  re- 
deemed, and  receives  the  fruits  of  redemption, 
namely,  liberation  from  hell,  union  with  the 
Lord,  and  salvation. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  nn.  716,  717 


THE   RESPONSIBLE   LIFE   IN   THE 
WORLD 

"  Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  Me." 

— Matthew,  xi,  29 

THERE  are  those  who  believe  that  it  is 
difficult  to  live  the  life  which  leads  to 
heaven,  which  is  called  the  spiritual  life, 
because  they  have  heard  that  one  must  re- 
nounce the  world,  must  divest  himself  of  the 
lusts  called  the  lusts  of  the  body  and  the  flesh, 
and  must  live  spiritually.  They  take  this  to 
mean  that  they  must  cast  away  worldly  things, 
which  are  especially  riches  and  honors;  that 
they  must  go  continually  in  pious  meditation 
on  God,  salvation,  and  eternal  life;  and  must 
spend  their  life  in  prayers  and  in  reading  the 
Word  and  pious  books.  But  those  who  re- 
nounce the  world  and  live  in  the  spirit  in  this 
manner  acquire  a  melancholy  life,  unreceptive 
of  heavenly  joy.  To  receive  the  life  of  heaven 
a  man  must  by  all  means  live  in  the  world  and 
engage  in  its  duties  and  affairs  and  by  a  moral 
and  civil  life  receive  the  spiritual  life, 

That  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  live  the  life 
of  heaven,  as  some  believe,  may  be  seen  from 
this:  when  a  matter  presents  itself  to  a  man 
which  he  knows  to  be  dishonest  and  unjust, 
but  to  which  he  inclines,  it  is  only  necessary 
for  him  to  think  that  it  ought  not  to  be  done 
because  it  is  opposed  to  the  Divine  precepts. 
If  a  man  accustoms  himself  to  think  so,  and 


from  so  doing  establishes  a  habit  of  so  think- 
ing, he  is  gradually  conjoined  to  heaven.  So 
far  as  he  is  conjoined  to  heaven  the  higher 
regions  of  his  mind  are  opened;  and  so  far 
as  these  are  opened  he  sees  whatever  is  dishon- 
est and  unjust;  and  so  far  as  he  sees  these  evils 
they  can  be  dispersed — for  no  evil  can  be  dis- 
persed until  it  is  seen. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  528,  533 


THE  DECALOGUE 

"  Come,  let  us  join  ourselves  to  the  Lord  in  a  per- 
petual covenant  that  shall  not  be  forgotten." 

— Jeremiah,  L,  5 

THE  conjunction  of  God  with  man,  and  of 
man  with  God,  is  taught  in  the  two  Tables 
which  were  written  with  the  finger  of 
God,  called  the  Tables  of  the  Covenant.  These 
Tables  obtain  with  all  nations  who  have  a  re- 
ligion. From  the  first  Table  they  know  that 
God  is  to  be  acknowledged,  hallowed  and 
worshipped.  From  the  second  Table  they 
know  that  a  man  is  not  to  steal,  either  openly 
or  by  trickery,  nor  to  commit  adultery,  nor  to 
kill,  whether  by  blow  or  by  hatred,  nor  to  bear 
false  witness  in  a  court  of  justice,  or  before 
the  world,  and  further  that  he  ought  not  to  will 
those  evils.  From  this  Table  a  man  knows  the 
evils  which  he  must  shun,  and  in  the  measure 
that  he  knows  them  and  shuns  them,  God  con- 
joins him  to  Himself,  and  in  turn  from  His 
Table  gives  man  to  acknowledge,  hallow  and 
worship  Him.  So,  also,  He  gives  him  not  to 
meditate  evils,  and,  in  so  far  as  he  does  not 
will  them,  to  know  truths  freely. 

— Apocalypse  Explained,  n.  1179 

As  one  views  the  two  tables,  it  is  plain  that 
they  are  so  conjoined  that  God  from  His  table 
looks  to  man,  and  that  in  turn  man  from  his 
table  looks  to  God.  Thus  the  regard  is  recipro- 
cal. God  for  His  part  never  ceases  to  re- 


33 


gard  man,  and  to  put  in  operation  such  things 
as  are  for  his  salvation;  and  if  man  receives 
and  does  the  things  in  his  table,  reciprocal 
conjunction  is  effected,  and  the  Lord's  words 
to  the  lawyer  will  have  come  to  pass,  "  This 
do,  and  thou  shalt  live." 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n,  287 


MARRIAGE 

"  Jesus  said ;  '  Have  ye  not  read  that  He  who  made 
them  at  the  beginning  made  them  male  and  female,  and 
said,  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and  mother 
and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife;  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 
flesh.  Wherefore  they  are  no  more  twain  but  one  flesh. 
What,  therefore,  God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man 
put  asunder.' " 

— Matthew,  xix,  4,  5 


MARRIAGE  37 


T 


HE  conjugial  inclination  of  one  man  to 

one  wife  is  the  jewel  of  human  life  and 

the  depository  of  the  Christian  religion. 

— Conjugial  Love,  n.  457 


THE   PROGRESSIVE   CHASTITY   OF 
MARRIAGE 

THE  love  in  marriage  is  from  its  origin 
and  correspondence  heavenly,  spiritual, 
holy,  pure  and  clean  above  every  other 
love  which  the  angels  of  heaven  or  men  of  the 
Church  have  from  the  Lord.  It  is  such  from 
its  origin,  which  is  the  marriage  of  good  and 
truth;  also  from  its  correspondence  with  the 
marriage  of  the  Lord  and  the  Church.  If  it  be 
received  from  its  Author,  Who  is  the  Lord, 
sanctity  from  Him  follows,  which  continually 
cleanses  and  purifies  it.  Then,  if  there  be  in 
man's  will  a  longing  for  it  and  an  effort  toward 
it,  this  love  becomes  continually  cleaner  and 
purer.  All  who  are  in  such  love  shun  extra- 
conjugial  loves  (which  are  conjunctions  with 
others  than  their  own  conjugial  partner)  as 
they  would  shun  the  loss  of  the  soul  and  the 
lakes  of  hell ;  and  in  the  measure  that  married 
partners  shun  such  conjunctions,  even  in  respect 
of  libidinous  desires  of  the  will  and  any  inten- 
tions from  them,  so  far  love  truly  conjugial 
is  purified  with  them,  and  becomes  success- 
sively  spiritual. 

— Conjugial  Love,  nn.  64,  71 


38  MARRIAGE 


THE  HEIGHT  OF  SERVICE 

CONJUGIAL  love  is  the  love  at  the  foun- 
dation of  all  good  loves,  and  is  inscribed 
on  all  the  least  life  of  the  human  being. 
Its  delights  therefore  surpass  the  delights  of 
all  other  loves,  and  it  also  gives  delight  to  other 
loves,  in  the  measure  of  its  presence  and  union 
with  them.  Into  it  all  delights  from  first  to 
last  are  collected,  on  account  of  the  superior 
excellence  of  its  use,  which  is  the  propagation 
of  the  human  race,  and  from  it  of  an  angelic 
heaven.  As  this  service  was  the  supreme  end 
of  creation,  all  the  beatitudes,  satisfaction,  de- 
lights, pleasantnesses  and  pleasures,  which  the 
Lord  the  Creator  could  possibly  confer  upon 
man,  are  gathered  into  this  love. 

— Conjugial  Love,  n.  68 


ITS  WHOLE  ESTATE 

THE  states  of  conjugial  love  are  Inno- 
cence,     Peace,      Tranquillity,      Inmost 
Friendship,  full  Confidence,,  and  mutual 
desire  of  mind  and  heart  to  do  each  other  every 
good.     From  all  of  these  come  blessedness, 
satisfaction,  agreeableness  and  pleasure;  and 
as  the  eternal  fruition  of  them,  heavenly  happi- 
ness.   These  states  can  be  realized  only  in  the 
marriage  of  one  man  with  one  wife. 

— Conjugial  Love,  nn.  180,  181 


THE  SACRED  SCRIPTURES 

"  They  testify  of  Me." 

—John,  v,  39 


THE  SACRED  SCRIPTURES  41 


GOD'S  WORD 

IN  its  inmosts  the  Sacred  Scripture  is  no 
other  than  God,  that  is,  the  Divine  which 
proceeds  from  God In  its  derivatives 

it  is  accommodated  to  the  perception  of  angels 
and  men.  In  these  it  is  Divine  likewise,  but 
in  another  form,  in  which  this  Divine  is  called 
"Celestial,"  "Spiritual,"  and  "Natural." 
These  are  no  other  than  coverings  of  God. 
Still  the  Divine,  which  is  inmost,  and  is  cov- 
ered with  such  things  as  are  accommodated 
to  the  perceptions  of  angels  and  men,  shines 
forth  like  light  through  crystalline  forms,  but 
variously,  according  to  the  state  of  mind  which 
a  man  has  formed  for  himself,  either  from 
God  or  from  self.  In  the  sight  of  the  man  who 
has  formed  the  state  of  his  mind  from  God, 
the  Sacred  Scripture  is  like  a  mirror  in  which 
he  sees  God,  each  in  his  own  way.  The  truths 
which  he  learns  from  the  Word  and  which 
become  a  part  of  him  by  a  life  according  to 
them,  compose  that  mirror.  The  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture is  the  fulness  of  God. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n,  6 


IN  ITS  BOSOM  SPIRITUAL 

THE  Word  in  its  bosom  is  spiritual.    De- 
scending from  Jehovah  the  Lord,  and 
passing  through  the  angelic  heavens,  the 
Divine  (in  itself  ineffable  and  imperceptible) 


42  THE  SACRED 

became  level  with  the  perception  of  angels 
and  finally  the  perception  of  man.  Hence  the 
Word  has  a  spiritual  sense,  which  is  within 
the  natural,  just  as  the  soul  is  in  the  body,  or  as 
thought  is  in  speech,  or  volition  in  action. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  193 


THE  LETTER  OF  THE  WORD 

THE  truths  of  the  sense  of  the  letter  of  the 
Word  are  in  part  appearances  of  truth, 
and  are  taken  from  things  in  nature,  and 
thus  accommodated  and  adapted  to  the  grasp 
of  the  simple  and  also  of  little  children.  But 
being  correspondences,  they  are  receptacles 
and  abodes  of  genuine  truth ;  and  are  like  en- 
closing and  containing  vessels.  The  naked 
truths  themselves,  which  are  enclosed  and  con- 
tained, are  in  the  Word's  spiritual  sense ;  and 
the  naked  goods  in  its  celestial  sense. 

The  doctrine  of  genuine  truth  can  also  be 
drawn  in  full  from  the  literal  sense  of  the 
Word;  for  the  Word  in  this  sense  is  like  a 
man  clothed,  whose  face  and  hands  are  bare. 
All  that  concern's  man's  life,  and  so  his  salva- 
tion, is  bare;  the  rest  is  clothed. 

— Doctrine  Concerning  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture, nn,  40,  55 


SCRIPTURES  43 


ITS  LANGUAGE 

THE  whole  natural  world  corresponds  to 
the  spiritual  world ;  not  only  generally, 
but  in  detail.    Whatever  comes  forth  in 
the  natural  world  from  the  spiritual,  is  there- 
fore   called    correspondent.     The    world    of 
nature  comes  forth  and  subsists  from  the  spiri- 
tual world,  just  as  an  effect  does  from  its 
efficient  cause. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  89 

What  is  Divine  presents  itself  in  the  world 
in  what  corresponds.  The  Word  is  therefore 
written  wholly  in  correspondence.  Therefore 
the  Lord,  too,  speaking  as  He  did  from  the 
Divine,  spoke  in  correspondence. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  201 

"  And  behold  a  ladder  set  on  the  earth, 
and  its  head  reaching  to  heaven:  and  behold 
the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending 
on  it.  And  behold  Jehovah  standing  above  it." 
The  ladder  set  between  earth  and  heaven,  or 
between  the  lowest  and  the  highest,  signifies 
communication.  In  the  original  tongue  the 
term  ladder  is  derived  from  an  expression 
which  signifies  a  path  or  way,  and  a  path  or 
way  is  predicated  of  truth.  By  a  ladder,  there- 
fore, one  extremity  of  which  is  set  on  the  earth, 
while  the  other  reaches  to  heaven,  is  signified 
the  communication  of  truth  which  is  in  the 
lowest  place  with  truth  which  is  in  the  high- 
est, indeed  with  inmost  good  and  truth,  such 


44  THE  SACRED 

as  are  in  heaven,  and  from  which  heaven  itself 
is  an  ascent  as  it  were  from  what  is  lowest, 
and  afterward  when  the  order  is  inverted,  a 
descent,  and  is  the  order  of  man's  rr  genera- 
tion. The  arcanum  which  lies  concealed  in 
the  internal  sense  of  these  words  is,  that  all 
goods  and  truths  descend  from  the  Lord,  and 
ascend  to  Him,  for  man  is  so  created  that  the 
Divine  things  of  the  Lord  may  descend 
through  him  even  to  the  ultimates  of  nature, 
and  from  the  ultimates  of  nature  may  ascend 
to  Him;  so  that  man  might  be  a  medium  unit- 
ing the  Divine  with  the  world  of  nature,  and 
uniting  the  world  of  nature  with  the  Divine, 
that  thus,  through  man,  as  through  the  uniting 
medium,  the  very  ultimate  of  nature  might  live 
from  the  Divine,  which  would  be  the  case  had 
man  lived  according  to  Divine  order. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  nn.  3699-3702 


ITS  FUNCTION 

DIVINE  truth,  in  passing  from  the  Lord 
through  the  three  heavens  to  men  in  the 
world,  is  written  and  made  the  Word  in 
each  heaven.  The  Word,  therefore,  is  the 
union  of  the  heavens  with  one  another,  and  of 
the  heavens  with  the  Church  in  the  world. 
Hence  there  flows  in  from  the  Lord  through 
the  heavens  a  holy  Divine  with  the  man  who 
acknowledges  the  Divine  in  the  Lord  and  the 
holy  in  the  Word,  while  he  reads  it.  Such  a 
man  can  be  instructed  and  can  draw  wisdom 
from  the  Word  as  from  the  Lord  Himself  or 


SCRIPTURES  45 

from  heaven  itself,  in  the  measure  that  he 
loves  it,  and  thus  can  be  nourished  with  the 
same  food  with  which  the  angels  themselves 
are  fed,  and  in  which  there  is  life,  according 
to  these  words  of  the  Lord : 

"  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they 

are  spirit,  and  they  are  life." 
"  The  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be 
in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up 
into  everlasting  life." 
"  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
every  word  which  proceedeth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  God." 

— Apocalypse  Explained,  n,  1074 


HOW  TO  USE  IT 

THEY  who,  in  reading  the  Word,  look  to 
the  Lord,  by  acknowledging  that  all  truth 
and  all  good  are  from  Him,  and  nothing 
from  themselves, — they  are  enlightened,  and 
see  truth  and  perceive  what  is  good  from  the 
Word.    That  enlightenment  is  from  the  light 
of  heaven. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  9405 


ITS  DISSEMINATION  OF  LIGHT 

THERE  cannot  be  any  conjunction  with 
heaven  unless  somewhere  upon  the  earth 
there  is  a  Church  where  the  Word  is  and 
by  it  the  Lord  is  known.    It  is  sufficient  that 


46  THE  SACRED  SCRIPTURES 

there  be  a  Church  where  the  Word  is,  even 
though  it  should  consist  of  few  relatively.  The 
Lord  is  present  by  it,  nevertheless,  in  the  whole 
world.  The  light  is  greatest  where  those  are 
who  have  the  Word.  Thence  it  extends  itself 
as  from  a  centre  out  to  the  last  periphery. 
Thence  comes  the  enlightenment  of  nations  and 
peoples  outside  the  Church,  too,  by  the  Word. 
— Doctrine  concerning  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture, nn.  104,  106 


A  CANON    ON  A  NEW  PRINCIPLE 

THE  books  of  the  Word  are  all  those  which 
have  an  internal  sense.  In  the  Old  Testa- 
ment they  are  the  five  books  of  Moses,  the 
book  of  Joshua,  the  book  of  Judges,  the  two 
books  of  Samuel,  the  two  books  of  Kings, 
the  Psalms  of  David,  the  Prophets  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,  Lamentations,  Ezekiel,  Daniel, 
Hosea,  Joel,  Amos,  Obadiah,  Jonah,  Micah, 
Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Zephaniah,  Haggai, 
Zecharaiah,  Malachi ;  and  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  four  Evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  John;  and  the  Apocalypse. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  10,325 


THE  LIFE  OF  CHARITY  AND  FAITH 

"  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good ;  and 
what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly  and 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God." 

— Micah,  vi,  8 


THE  LIFE  OF  CHARITY  AND'FAITH   49 


THE  LAW  OF  CHARITY 

NOT  to  do  evil  to  the  neighbor  is  the  first 
thing  of  charity,  and  to  do  good  to  him 
fills  the  second  place That  a  man 

cannot  do  good  which  in  itself  is  good  before 
evil  has  been  removed,  the  Lord  teaches  in 
many  places :  "  Do  men  gather  grapes  of 
thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles?  Neither  can  a  cor- 
rupt tree  bring  forth  good  fruit" — Matt. 
XVI,  18. 

So  in  Isaiah :  "  Wash  you,  make  you  clean ; 
put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before 
Mine  eyes ;  cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to  do  well  " 

(i,  16,17). 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  445 


GOOD  IN  ITS  WHOLENESS 

BEFORE  repentance  good  is  not  done 
from  the  Lord,  but  from  the  man.  It  has 
not,  therefore,  the  essence  of  good  within 
it,  however  it  appears  like  good  outwardly. 
Good  after  repentance  is  another  thing  alto* 
gether.  It  is  a  whole  good,  unobstructed  from 
the  Lord  Himself.  It  is  lovely;  it  is  innocent; 
it  is  agreeable,  and  heavenly.  The  Lord  is  in 
it,  and  heaven.  Good  itself  is  in  it.  It  is  alive, 
fashioned  of  truths.  Whatever  is  thus  from 
good,  in  good,  and  toward  good,  is  nothing  less 
than  a  use  to  the  neighbor,  and  hence  it  is  a 


50  THE  LIFE  OF 

serving.  It  puts  away  self  and  what  is  one's 
own,  and  thus  evil,  with  every  breath.  Its 
form  is  like  the  form  of  a  charming  and  beau- 
tifully colored  flower,  shining  in  the  rays  of 
the  sun. 

— The  Doctrine  of  Charity,  n.  150 


THE  MAN  OF  CHARITY 

EVERY  man  who  looks  to  the  Lord  and 
shuns  evils  as  sins,  if  he  sincerely,  justly 
and  faithfully  performs  the  work  which 
belongs  to  his  office  and  employment,  becomes 
an  embodiment  of  charity. 

— The  Doctrine  of  Charity,  VII 

In  common  belief  charity  is  nothing  else 
than  giving  to  the  poor,  succoring  the  needy, 
caring  for  widows  and  orphans,  contributing 
to  the  building  of  hospitals,  infirmaries,  asy- 
lums, orphanages,  and  especially  churches, 
and  to  their  decoration  and  income.  But  most 
of  these  things  are  not  the  proper  activities 
of  charity,  but  extraneous  to  it.  A  distinction 
is  to  be  made  between  the  duties  of  charity, 
and  its  benefactions.  By  the  duties  of  charity 
those  exercises  of  it  are  meant,  which  proceed 
directly  from  charity  itself.  These  have  to  do 
primarily  with  one's  occupation.  By  the  bene- 
factions those  aids  are  meant  which  are  given 
outside  of,  and  over  and  above  the  duties. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  425 


CHARITY  AND  FAITH  51 


THE  ACTIVITY  OF  CHARITY 


c 


HARITY  is  an  inward  affection,  moving 
man  to  do  what  is  good,  and  this  without 
recompense.  So  to  act  is  his  life's  delight. 


The  life  of  charity  is  to  will  well  and  to 
do  well  by  the  neighbor;  in  all  work,  and  in 
every  employment,  acting  out  of  regard  to 
what  is  just  and  equitable,  good  and  true.  In 
a  word,  the  life  of  charity  consists  in  the  per- 
formance of  uses. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  nn.  106,  124 


FAITH  THE  PARTNER  OF  CHARITY 

NEITHER  charity  alone  nor  faith  alone 
can  produce  good  works,  any  more  than  a 
husband  alone  or  a  wife  alone  can  have 
offspring.    The  truths  of  faith  not  only  illu- 
minate charity,  but  qualify  it,  too;  and,  more- 
over, they  nourish  it.    A  man,  then,  who  has 
charity  and  not  truths  of  faith,  is  like  one 
walking  in  a  garden  in  the  night-time,  snatch- 
ing  fruit   from   the   trees   without  knowing 
whether  it  is  of  a  good  or  evil  use. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  377 


52  THE  LIFE  OF 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  CHARITY 

ONE'S  country  is  the  neighbor  more  than 
a  society,  for  it  consists  of  many  socie- 
ties, and  consequently  the  love  of  it  is  a 
more  extended  and  a  higher  love.  Besides,  to 
love  one's  country  is  to  love  the  public  welfare. 
A  man's  country  is  the  neighbor  because  it  is 
like  a  parent;  for  there  he  was  born;  it  has 
nourished  and  still  nourishes  him;  it  has  pro- 
tected him  from  harm,  and  still  protects  him. 
From  love  for  it  he  ought  to  do  good  to  his 
country  according  to  its  needs,  some  of  which 
are  natural,  and  others  spiritual.  The  coun- 
try ought  to  be  loved,  not  as  a  man  loves  him- 
self, but  more  than  himself.  This  is  a  law  in- 
scribed on  the  human  heart.  And  from  the 
law  has  issued  the  proposition,  which  has  the 
assent  of  every  true  man,  that  if  ruin  threatens 
the  country  from  an  enemy  or  other  source,  it 
is  illustrious  to  die  for  it,  and  glorious  for  a 
soldier  to  shed  his  blood  for  it.  This  is  a 
common  saying,  because  so  much  should  one's 
country  be  loved.  Those  who  love  their  coun- 
try, and  from  good  will  do  good  to  it,  after 
death  love  the  Lord's  kingdom,  for  this  is  their 
country  there;  and  they  who  love  the  Lord's 
kingdom,  love  the  Lord,  for  He  is  the  All  in 
all  of  His  Kingdom. 

-- — True  Christian  Religion,  n,  414 


CHARITY  AND  FAITH  53 


FAITH  AND  DOURT 

THERE  are  those  who  are  in  doubt  be- 
fore they  deny,  and  there  are  those  who 
are  in  doubt  before  they  affirm.  Those  in 
doubt  before  they  deny,  are  men  who  incline 
to  a  life  of  evil.  When  that  life  sways  them, 
they  deny  things  spiritual  and  celestial  to  the 
extent  that  they  think  of  them.  But  those  in 
doubt  before  they  affirm,  are  men  who  incline 
to  a  life  of  good.  When  they  suffer  themselves 
to  be  turned  to  this  life  by  the  Lord,  they  then 
affirm  things  spiritual  and  celestial  to  the  ex- 
tent that  they  think  of  them. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n,  2568 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  FAITHFUL 

IT  is  one  thing  to  know  truths,  another  to 
acknowledge  them,  and  yet  another  to  have 
faith    in    them.     Only    the    faithful    can 
have  faith. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  896 

The  only  faith  that  endures  with  man 
springs  from  heavenly  love.  Those  without 
love  have  knowledge  merely,  or  persuasion. 
Just  to  believe  in  truth  and  in  the  Word  is  not 
faith.  Faith  is  to  love  truth,  and  to  will  and  do 
it  from  inward  affection  for  it. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  482 


54  THE  LIFE  OF 

If  a  man  thinks  to  himself  or  says  to  an- 
other, "  Who  can  have  that  inward  acknowl- 
edgment of  truth  which  is  faith?  I  cannot," 
I  will  tell  him  how  he  may:  "  Shun  evils  as 
sins,  and  go  to  the  Lord,  and  you  will  have  as 
much  as  you  desire." 

— Doctrine  Concerning  Faith,  n.  12 


NEIGHBORS 

NOT  only  is  the  individual  man  the 
neighbor,  but  the  collective  man,  too. 
A  society,  smaller  or  larger,  is  the  neigh- 
bor ;  the  Church  is ;  the  Kingdom  of  the  Lord 
is;  and  above  all  the  Lord  Himself.  These 
are!  the  neighbor,  to  whom  good  is  to  be  done 
from  love.  These  are  also  the  ascending  de- 
grees of  the  neighbor;  for  a  society  consisting 
of  many  is  the  neighbor  in  a  higher  degree 
than  is  the  individual ;  one's  country  in  a  still 
higher  degree;  the  Church  in  a  still  higher 
degree  than  one's  country;  in  a  degree  higher 
still  the  Kingdom  of  the  Lord;  and  in  the 
highest  degree  the  Lord  Himself.  These  de- 
grees of  ascent  are  like  the  steps  in  a  ladder,  at 
the  top  of  which  is  the  Lord. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  n.  91 


CHARITY  AND  FAITH  55 


DIVERSIONS 

THERE  is  an  affection  in  every  employ- 
ment, which  puts  the  mind  upon  the 
stretch  and  keeps  it  intent  upon  its  work 
or  study.  If  it  is  not  relaxed,  this  becomes 
heavy,  and  its  desire  meaningless ;  as  salt,  when 
it  loses  its  saltness,  no  longer  stimulates,  and 
as  the  bow  on  the  stretch,  unless  it  is  unbent, 
loses  the  force  it  gets  from  its  elasticity.  Con- 
tinuously intent  upon  its  work,  the  mind  wants 
rest;  and  dropping  to  the  physical  life,  it  seeks 
pleasures  there  that  answer  to  its  activities. 
As  is  the  mind  in  them,  such  are  the  pleasures, 
pure  or  impure,  spiritual  or  natural,  heavenly 
or  infernal.  If  it  is  the  affection  of  charity 
which  is  in  them,  all  diversions  will  recreate 
it — shows,  games,  instrumental  and  vocal 
music,  the  beauties  of  field  and  garden,  social 
intercourse  generally.  There  remains  deep  in 
them,  being  gradually  renewed  as  it  rests,  the 
love  of  work  and  service.  The  longing  to  re- 
sume this  work  breaks  in  upon  the  diversions 
and  puts  an  end  to  them.  For  the  Lord  flows 
into  the  diversions  from  heaven,  and  renews 
the  man;  and  He  gives  the  man  an  interior 
sense  of  pleasure  in  them,  too,  of  which  those 
know  nothing  who  are  not  in  the  affection 
of  charity. 

— Doctrine  of  Charity,  nn,  127,  128,  130 


THE  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE 

"  He  leadeth  me." 

— Psalm,  xxin,  2 


THE  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE  59 


THE  DIVINE  PURPOSE 

THE  Divine  Providence  has  for  an  end  a 
heaven  which  shall  consist  of  men  who 
have  become  angels  or  who  are  becoming 
angels,  to  whom  the  Lord  can  impart  from 
Himself  all  the  blessedness  andi  felicity  of 
love  and  wisdom. 

— Divine  Providence,  n.  27 


THE  LAWFUL  ORDER  OF  PROVI- 
DENCE 

IN  all  that  proceeds  from  the  Lord  the 
Divine  Providence  is  first.  Indeed,  we 
may  say  that  the  Lord  is  Providence,  as  we 
say  that  God  is  Order;  for  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence is  Divine  Order  with  regard  above  all 
to  the  salvation  of  man.  As  order  is  impossible 
without  laws,  it  follows  that  as  God  is  order 
so  is  He  the  Law  of  His  order.  And  as  the 
Lord  is  His  Providence,  He  is  also  the  Law 
of  His  Providence.  The  Lord  cannot  act  con- 
trary to  the  laws  of  His  Providence,  for  to  act 
contrary  to  them  would  be  to  act  contrary 
to  Himself. 

— Divine  Providence,  n.  331 


60  THE  DIVINE 


A  WORLD-WIDE  LEADING 

THE  Lord  provides  that  there  shall  be  re- 
ligion everywhere,  and  in  each  religion 
the  two  essentials  of  salvation,  which  are, 
to  acknowledge  God,  and  not  to  do  evil  because 
it  is  contrary  to  God.  It  is  provided  further- 
more that  all  who  have  lived  well  and  acknowl- 
edge God  should  be  instructed  by  angels 
after  death.  Then,  they  who,  in  the  world, 
were  in  the  two  essentials  of  religion,  accept 
the  truths  of  the  Church,  such  as  they  are  in 
the  Word,  and  acknowledge  the  Lord  as  the 
God  of  heaven  and  the  Church.  It  has  also 
been  provided  by  the  Lord  that  all  who  die 
infants  shall  be  saved,  wherever  they  may  have 
been  born. 

— Divine  Providence,  n.  328 


THE  DIVINE  PERSEVERANCE 

THE  Divine  Providence  differs  from  all 
other  leading  and  guidance  in  this,  that  it 
continually  regards  what  is  eternal,  and 
continually  leads  to  salvation,  and  this  through 
various   states,   now    glad,    now   sad, — states 
which  a  man  cannot  understand  at  all,  and  yet 
they  all  conduce  to  his  life  to  eternity. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  8560 


PROVIDENCE  61 


IN  THE  STREAM  OF  PROVIDENCE 

THE  Divine  Providence  is  universal,  that 
is,  in  the  leasts  of  all  things.  They  who 
are  in  the  stream  of  Providence  are  borne 
along  continually  to  happiness,  whatsoever  the 
appearance  of  the  means  may  be.  They  are  in 
the  stream  of  Providence,  who  put  their  trust 
in  the  Divine,  and  ascribe  all  things  to  Him. 
They  are  not  in  the  stream  of  Providence  who 
trust  themselves  alone  and  ascribe  all  things 
to  themselves.  As  far  as  one  is  in  the  stream 
of  Providence,  so  far  one  is  in  a  state  of  peace. 
Such  alone  know  and  believe  that  the  Divine 
Providence  of  the  Lord  is  in  each  and  all 
things,  yea,  in  the  leasts  of  all  things. 

— Arcana  Gcelestia,  n.  8478 


CARE  FOR  THE  MORROW 

IT  is  not  contrary  to  order  to  look  out  for 
one's  self  and  one's  dependents.  Those  have 
"  care  for  the  morrow  "  who  are  not  content 
with  their  lot,  who  do  not  trust  in  the  Divine 
but  themselves,  and  who  regard  only  worldly 
and  earthly  things  and  not  heavenly.  With 
such  there  prevails  universally  a  solicitude 
about  things  future,  a  desire  to  possess  every- 
thing, and  to  rule  over  all.  They  grieve  if  they 
do  not  get  what  they  desire,  and  suffer  torment 
when  they  lose  what  they  have.  Then  they 
grow  angry  with  the  Divine,  rejecting  it  to- 


62  THE  DIVINE 

gether  with  everything  of  faith,  and  cursing 
themselves.  Altogether  different  is  it  with 
those  who  trust  in  the  Divine.  Though  they 
have  care  for  the  morrow,  yet  they  have  it  not; 
for  they  do  not  think  of  the  morrow  with  solici- 
tude, still  less  with  anxiety.  Whether  they 
get  what  they  wish  or  not,  they  are  composed, 
not  lamenting  over  losses,  but  being  content 
with  their  lot.  If  they  become  rich,  they  do 
not  set  their  hearts  upon  riches.  If  they  are 
exalted  to  honors,  they  do  not  look  upon  them- 
selves as  worthier  than  others.  If  they  be- 
come poor,  they  are  not  cast  down.  If  their 
condition  be  mean,  they  are  not  dejected.  They 
know  that  with  those  who  put  their  trust  in  the 
Divine,  all  things  work  toward  a  happy  state 
to  eternity. 

— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  8478 


THE  SUFFERANCE  OF  EVIL 

THE  chief  aim  and  effort  of  the  Lord's 
Divine  Providence  is  that  a  man  shall  be 
in  what  is  good  and  in  what  is  true  at  the 
same  time ;  for  thereby  man  is  man,  since  he  is 
then  an  image  of  the  Lord.  But  because,  in 
his  life  in  the  world,  he  can  be  in  what  is  good 
and  in  what  is  false  at  the  same  time,  and  also 
in  what  is  evil  and  what  is  true  at  the  same 
time,  nay,  even  in  evil  and  at  the  same  time  in 
good,  and  thus  be  a  double  man,  as  it  were,  and 
because  this  division  destroys  God's  image  and 
so  destroys  the  man,  therefore  the  Lord's  Di- 


PROVIDENCE  63 

vine  Providence  in  all  its  workings  seeks  to 
prevent  this  division.  Furthermore,  because 
it  is  better  for  man  to  be  in  what  is  evil  and 
in  the  same  time  in  what  is  false  than  to  be  in 
good  and  at  the  same  time  in  evil,  therefore 
the  Lord  permits  it;  not  as  one  willing  it,  but 
as  one  unable  to  prevent  it  consistently  with  the 
end,  which  is  salvation. 

-Divine  Providence,  n.  16 


DEATH  AND  THE  RESURRECTION 

"  I  laid  me  down  and  slept : 
I  awaked :  for  the  Lord  sustained  me." 

— Psalm,  m,  5 

"  Now  that  the  dead  are  raised,  even  Moses  showed 
at  the  bush,  when  he  called  the  Lord  the  God  of 
Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob: 
for  He  is  not  a  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living;  for 
to  Him  all  are  living," 

— Luke,  xx,  37,  38 


DEATH  AND  THE  RESURRECTION    67 


IMMORTAL  BY  ENDOWMENT 

MAN  has  been  so  created  that  as  to  his 
inward  being  he  cannot  die;  for  he  can 
believe  in  God,  and  also  love  God,  and 
thus  be  united  to  God  in  faith  and  love;  and  to 
be  united  to  God  is  to  live  to  eternity. 

— Heavenly  Doctrine,  n,  223 


FROM  WORLD  TO  WORLD 

WHEN  the  body  is  no  longer  able  to  per- 
form its  functions  in  the  natural  world, 
a  man  is  said  to  die.  Still  the  man  does 
not  die ;  he  is  only  separated  from  the  bodily 
part  which  was  of  use  to  him  in  the  world. 
The  man  himself  lives.  He  lives,  because  he 
is  man  by  virtue,  not  of  the  body,  but  of  the 
spirit;  for  it  is  the  spirit  in  man  which  thinks; 
and  thought  together  with  affection  makes  the 
man.  It  is  plain,  then,  that  when  a  man  dies, 
he  only  passes  from  one  world  into  the  other. 
The  spirit  of  man  after  separation  re- 
mains awhile  in  the  body,  but  not  after  the 
motion  of  the  heart  has  entirely  ceased.  This 
takes  place  with  a  variation  according  to  the 
diseased  condition  of  which  the  man  dies.  As 
soon  as  the  motion  ceases,  the  man  is  resusci- 
tated. This  is  done  by  the  Lord  alone. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  445,  447 


68  DEATH  AND 


UNHURT  BY  DEATH 

WHEN  a  man  passes  from  the  natural 
world  into  the  spiritual,  he  takes  with 
him  everything  that  belongs  to  him  as 
a  man  except  his  earthly  body.  (This  he  leaves 
when  he  dies,  nor  does  he  ever  resume  it.*) 
He  is  in  a  body  as  he  was  in  the  natural  world ; 
and  to  all  appearance  there  is  no  difference. 
But  his  body  is  spiritual,  and  is  therefore  sepa- 
rated or  purified  from  things  terrestrial.  And 
when  what  is  spiritual  touches  and  sees  what  is 
spiritual,  it  is  just  the  same  as  when  what  is 

natural  touches  and  sees  what  is  natural 

A  human  spirit  also  enjoys  every  sense,  exter- 
nal and  internal,  which  he  enjoyed  in  the 
world.  He  sees  as  before,  hears  and  speaks 
as  before,  smells  and  tastes  as  before,  and  feels 
when  he  is  touched.  He  also  longs,  desires, 
craves,  thinks,  reflects,  is  stirred,  loves,  wills, 

as  he  did  previously In  a  word,  when 

a  man  passes  from  the  one  life  into  the  other, 
or  from  the  one  world  into  the  other,  it  is  as 
though  he  had  passed  from  one  place  to  an- 
other ;  and  he  carries  with  him  all  that  he  pos- 
sesses in  himself  as  a  man.  It  cannot,  then,  be 
said,  that  after  death  a  man  has  lost  anything 
that  really  belonged  to  him.  He  carries  his 
natural  memory  with  him,  too ;  for  he  retains 
all  things  whatsoever  which  he  has  heard,  seen, 
read,  learned  and  thought  in  the  world,  from 
earliest  infancy  even  to  the  last  of  life. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  461 

*  Heavenly  Doctrine,  n.  225. 


THE  RESURRECTION  69 


THE  WORLD  OF  SPIRITS 

EVERY  man  at  death  comes  first  into  the 
world  of  spirits,  which  is  midway  be- 
tween heaven  and  hell ;  and  there  he  passes 
through  his  own  states,  and  is  prepared  either 
for  heaven  or  for  hell  according  to  his  life. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  world  of 

spirits  is  one  thing,  and  the  spiritual  world 
another.  The  spiritual  world  embraces  the 
world  of  spirits  and  heaven  and  hell. 

— Divine  Love  and  Wisdom,  n.  140 


THE  WAY  OF  ONE'S  OWN  LOVE 

AFTER  death  every  one  goes  the  way  of 
his  love — he  who  is  in  a  good  love,  to 
heaven,  and  he  who  is  in  a  wicked  love, 
to  hell.    Nor  does  he  rest  until  he  is  in  that 
society  where  his  ruling  love  is.     What  is 
wonderful,  every  one  knows  the  way, 

Every  one's  state  after  death  is  spiritual, 
which  is  such  that  he  cannot  be  anywhere  but 
in  the  delight  of  his  own  love,  which  he  has 
acquired  for  himself  by  his  life  in  the  natural 
world.  From  this  it  appears  plainly  that  no 
one  can  be  let  into  the  delight  of  heaven  who 

is  in  the  delight  of  hell This  may  be 

still  more  certainly  concluded  from  the  fact 
that  no  one  is  forbidden  after  death  to  ascend 
to  heaven.  The  way  is  shown  him,  opportunity 
is  given  him,  and  he  is  let  in.  But  when  one 


70    DEATH  AND  THE  RESURRECTION 

who  is  in  the  delight  of  evil  comes  into  heaven, 
and  breathes  in  its  delight,  he  begins  to  be 
oppressed,  and  racked  at  heart,  and  to  feel 
in  a  swoon,  in  which  he  writhes  like  a  snake 
put  near  a  fire ;  and  with  his  face  turned  away 
from  heaven  and  toward  hell,  he  flees  head- 
long, nor  does  he  rest  until  he  is  in  the  society  of 
his  own  love. 

— Divine  Providence,  nn.  319,  338 

It  is  an  abiding  truth  that  every  man  rises 
again  after  death  into  another  life,  and  pre- 
sents himself  for  judgment.  This  judgment, 
however,  is  circumstanced  as  follows:  As 
soon  as  his  bodily  parts  grow  cold,  which  takes 
place  after  a  few  days,  he  is  raised  by  the  Lord 
at  the  hands  of  celestial  angels  who  first  are 
with  him.  If  he  is  such  that  he  cannot  be  with 
them,  he  is  received  by  spiritual  angels,  and 
in  turn  afterwards  by  good  spirits.  For  all 
who  come  into  the  other  life,  whoever  they 
may  be,  are  grateful  and  welcome  new-comers. 
But  as  every  one's  desires  follow  him,  he  who 
has  led  a  bad  life  cannot  remain  long  with 
angels  or  good  spirits,  but  in  turn  separates 
himself  from  them,  until  at  length  he  comes  to 
spirits  of  a  life  conforming  with  the  life  he 
had  in  the  world.  Then  it  seems  to  him  as  if 
he  were  back  in  the  life  of  the  body ;  his  present 
life  being,  in  fact,  a  continuation  of  his  past 
life.  With  this  life  his  judgment  commences. 
They  who  have  led  a  bad  life  in  process  of  time 
descend  into  hell;  they  who  have  led  a  good 
life,  are  by  degrees  raised  by  the  Lord 
into  heaven. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  2119 


THE  FIRST  THREE  STATES  AFTER 
DEATH 

"  He  that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still  |  and  he 
that  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still ;  and  he  that  is  righteous, 
let  him  be  righteous  still;  and  he  that  is  holy,  let  him 
be  holy  still." 

— Rev.,  xxn,  n 


THREE  STATES  AFTER  DEATH         73 


CONTINUATION  OF  THE  OUTWARD 
LIFE 

THERE  are  three  states  through  which  a 
man  passes  after  death,  before  he  enters 
either  heaven  or  hell.    The  first  state  is 
that  of  his  outward  nature  and  life ;  the  second, 
that  of  his  inward  nature  and  life;  and  the 
third,    one    of    preparation.     A    man    passes 
through  these  states  in  the  world  of  spirits. 

The  first  state  of  a  man  after  death  is  like 
his  state  in  the  world,  because  he  is  then  simi- 
larly in  things  outward.  His  appearance  is 
similar,  and  so  are  his  speech,  his  mental  habit, 
and  his  moral  and  civil  life.  As  a  result  he 
does  not  know  but  that  he  is  still  in  the  world, 
unless  he  pays  attention  to  things  that  meet 
his  eye,  and  to  what  the  angels  told  him  at  his 
resuscitation,  that  now  he  is  a  spirit.  Thus  one 
life  is  carried  on  into  the  other,  and  death  is 
only  the  transition. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  491,  493 


REVELATION  OF  THE  INNER  LIFE 

AFTER  the  first  state  is  past,  which  is  the 
state  of  the  outward  nature  and  life,  a 
spirit  is  admitted  into  the  state  of  his 
inward  will  and  thought,  in  which,  on  being 
left  to  himself  to  think  freely  and  unchecked, 
he  had  been  in  the  world.    He  slips  unawares 


74  THE  FIRST  THREE 

into  this  state,  just  as  he  did  in  the  world. 
When  he  is  in  this  state,  he  is  in  himself,  and 
in  his  very  life ;  for  to  think  freely  from  the 
affection  properly  one's  own,  is  the  very  life 
of  man,  and  is  the  man. 

When  a  spirit  is  in  the  state  of  his  inward 
nature  and  life,  it  appears  plainly  what  manner 
of  man  he  was  in  the  world ;  for  then  he  acts 
from  his  very  self.  A  man  who  was  inwardly 
in  good  in  the  world,  then  acts  rationally  and 
wisely — more  wisely,  in  fact,  than  he  did  in  the 
world ;  for  he  has  been  loosed  from  connection 
with  the  body,  and  so  with  worldly  things, 
which  caused  obscurity  and,  as  it  were,  inter- 
posed a  cloud.  But  a  man  who  was  in  evil  in 
the  world,  then  acts  foolishly  and  insanely- 
more  insanely,  in  fact,  than  he  did  in  the  world, 
for  now  he  is  in  freedom  and  not  coerced.  For 
when  he  lived  in  the  world,  he  was  sane  in  his 
outward  life,  for  so  he  assumed  the  appear- 
ance of  a  rational  man.  When,  therefore, 
his  outward  life  is  laid  off,  his  insanities  re- 
veal themselves. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  502,  505 


STATES  AFTER  DEATH  75 


INSTRUCTED  FOR  HEAVEN 

THE  third  state  of  a  man  after  death  is  a 
state  of  instruction.    This  is  a  state  in  the 
experience  of  those  who  enter  heaven  and 
become  angels. 

Instruction  in  heaven  differs  from  instruc- 
tion on  earth,  in  that  knowledge  is  not  com- 
mitted to  memory,  but  to  life ;  for  the  memory 
of  spirits  is  in  their  life,  inasmuch  as  they 
receive  and  become  imbued  with  everything 
that  agrees  with  their  life,  and  they  do  not 
receive,  still  less  do  they  become  imbued  with, 
anything  that  disagrees  with  it;  for  spirits  are 
affections,  and  are  in  a  human  form  like  their 
affections.  Being  such,  they  have  inspired  in 
them  continually  an  affection  for  truth  for  the 
sake  of  the  uses  of  life ;  for  the  Lord  provides 
that  every  one  may  love  the  uses  which  suit 
his  genius,  a  love  that  is  exalted,  too,  by  the 

hope  of  becoming  an  angel With  every 

one,  therefore,  the  affection  of  truth  is  united 
to  the  affection  of  use,  so  fully  that  they  act 
as  one.  Thereby  truth  is  planted  in  service, 
so  much  so  that  the  truths  which  angelic  spirits 
learn,  are  truths  of  use.  Thus  are  they  in- 
structed and  prepared  for  heaven. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn,  512,  517 


HEAVEN 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  do  His  commandments,  that 
they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life;  and  may  enter 
in  through  the  gates  into  the  city. 

— Rev.,  xxn,  14 

"  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life  j 
In  Thy  presence  is  fulness  of  joy ; 

At  Thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  forevermore." 

— Psalm,  xvi,  1 1 


HEAVEN  79 


"THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS 
WITHIN  YOU  " 

HEAVEN  is  in  a  man;  and  they  who 
have   heaven  within   themselves,   come 
into  heaven.    Heaven  in  a  man  is  to  ac- 
knowledge  the    Divine,    and   to   be   led   by 
the  Divine, 

Every  angel  receives  the  heaven  which  is 
around  him  according  to  the  heaven  which  is 
within  him.  Unless  heaven  is  within  a  man, 
none  of  the  heaven  around  him  flows  in  and 
is  received. 

Love  to  the  Lord  is  the  love  regnant  in 
the  heavens ;  for  there  the  Lord  is  loved  above 
all  things.  Thus  the  Lord  is  All  in  all  there. 
He  flows  into  all  the  angels,  and  into  each  of 
them.  He  disposes  them;  He  induces  a  like- 
ness of  Himself  on  them,  and  causes  Heaven  to 
be  where  He  is.  Hence  an  angel  is  heaven  in 
the  least  form ;  a  society  is  heaven  in  a  greater 
form ;  and  all  the  societies  together  are  heaven 
in  the  greatest  form. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  319,  54,  58 


AN  ACTUAL  WORLD 

IN  general,  what  appears  in  heaven,  ap- 
pears the  same  as  it  does  in  our  material 
world  of  three  kingdoms.     Things  appear 
before  the  eyes  of  angels  just  as  objects  of  the 


8o  HEAVEN 

three  kingdoms  do  before  the  eyes  of  men  in  the 
world.  Still  there  is  this  difference:  the  things 
which  appear  in  heaven,  have  a  spiritual  ori- 
gin, and  those  which  appear  in  our  world  a 
material  origin.  Objects  of  a  spiritual  origin 
affect  the  senses  of  angels  because  these  senses 
are  spiritual,  as  those  of  a  material  origin 
affect  the  senses  of  men,  inasmuch  as  their 
senses  are  material.  Heavenly  objects  are  said 
to  have  a  spiritual  origin,  because  they  exist 
from  the  Divine  which  proceeds  from  the 
Lord  as  a  Sun;  and  the  Divine  that  proceeds 
from  the  Lord  as  a  Sun  is  spiritual.  For  there 
the  Sun  is  not  fire,  but  Divine  Love,  appearing 
before  the  eyes  of  the  angels  as  the  sun  of  the 
world  does  before  the  eyes  of  men ;  and  what- 
ever proceeds  from  the  Divine  Love  is  Divine 
and  is  spiritual.  Of  this  origin  are  all  things 
which  exist  in  the  heavens,  and  they  appear 
in  forms  like  those  in  our  world.  It  is  due 
to  the  order  of  creation  that  they  appear  in 
such  forms.  According  to  that  order,  things 
which  are  of  love  and  wisdom  with  the 
angels,  on  descending  into  the  lower  sphere 
in  which  angels  are  in  respect  of  their  bodies 
and  of  their  sensation,  present  themselves  in 
such  forms  and  under  such  types.  These  are 
correspondences. 

— Apocalypse  Explained,  n.  926 


HEAVEN  8 1 


A  WORLD  OF  ACTION 

ALL  heaven's  delights  are  united  to  uses 
and  inhere  in  them,  because  uses  are  the 
goods  of  love  and  charity,  in  which  the 
angels  are.  The  angels  find  all  their  happi- 
ness in  use,  from  use,  and  according  to  use. 
There  is  the  highest  freedom  in  this  because  it 
proceeds  from  interior  affection,  and  is  con- 
joined with  ineffable  delight.  Uses  exist  in 
the  heavens  in  all  variety  and  diversity.  Never 
is  the  use  of  one  angel  quite  the  same  as  that  of 
another;  nor  the  delight.  What  is  more,  the 
delights  of  any  one  person's  use  are  countless. 
These  countless  and  various  delights  are  never- 
theless united  in  an  order  so  that  they  mutually 
regard  one  another,  as  do  the  uses  of  every 
member,  organ  and  inner  part  of  the  body. 
They  are  even  more  like  the  uses  of  each  vessel 
and  fibre  in  every  member,  organ  and  vital 
part;  each  and  all  of  which  are  so  related  that 
they  regard  each  of  its  own  good  in  the  other, 
and  thus  in  all,  and  all  in  each.  As  a  result  of 
this  general  and  several  regard  they  act  as  one. 
— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  402,  403,  404,  405 


82  HEAVEN 


OUR  CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN 

EVERY  little  child,   wheresoever   born, 
whether  within  the  Church  or  out  of  it, 
whether  of  pious  parents  or  of  impious, 
is  received  by  the  Lord  at  death ;  is  educated 
in  heaven ;  is  taught  and  imbued  with  affections 
of  good  and  by  these  with  knowledges  of  truth ; 
and  then,  as  he  is  perfected  in  intelligence  and 
wisdom,  is  introduced  into  heaven  and  becomes 
an  angel. 

When  children  die,  they  are  still  children 
in  the  other  life.  They  have  the  same  infantile 
mind,  the  same  innocence  in  ignorance,  and  the 
same  tenderness  in  all  things.  They  have 
only  the  rudimentary  capacity  of  becom- 
ing angels;  for  children  are  not  yet  angels, 
but  are  to  become  angels.  The  state  of 
children  in  the  other  life  far  surpasses  that 
of  children  in  the  world;  for  they  are  not 
clothed  with  an  earthly  body,  but  with  a  body 
like  that  of  the  angels.  The  earthly  body  is 
in  itself  heavy,  and  does  not  receive  its  first 
sensations  and  impulses  from  the  interior  or 
spiritual  world,  but  from  the  exterior  or  nat- 
ural world.  In  this  world,  therefore,  infants 
must  learn  to  walk,  to  control  the  body's  mo- 
tions, and  to  talk.  Even  their  senses,  like  sight 
and  hearing,  must  be  developed  by  use.  It  is 
quite  otherwise  with  children  in  the  other  life. 
Being  spirits,  they  act  at  once  in  expression  of 
their  inner  being,  walking  without  practice, 


HEAVEN  83 

and  also  talking,  but  at  first  from  general  affec- 
tions not  yet  distinguished  into  ideas  of 
thought.  They  are  quickly  initiated  into 
these,  too,  however;  and  this  for  the  reason 
that  outer  and  inner  are  homogeneous 
with  them. 

The  Lord  flows  into  the  Ideas  of  children 
chiefly  from  their  inmost  soul,  for  nothing  has 
closed  their  ideas,  as  with  adults.  No  false 
principles  have  closed  them  to  the  understand- 
ing of  truth,  nor  any  evil  life  to  the  reception 
of  good,  nor  to  becoming  wise. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn,  416,  330,  331,  836 


TOWARD  THE  MORNING  OF  LIFE 

THE  Lord  is  present  with  every  human 
being,  urgent  and  instant  to  be  received ; 
and  when  a  man  receives  Him,  as  he  does 
when  he  acknowledges  Him  as  his  God,  Crea- 
tor, Redeemer  and  Saviour,  then  is  His  first 
Coming,  which  is  called  the  dawn.  From 
this  time  the  man  begins  to  be  enlightened,  as 
to  understanding  in  things  spiritual,  and  to 
advance  into  a  more  and  more  interior  wisdom. 
As  he  receives  this  wisdom  from  the  Lord,  so 
he  advances  through  morning  into  day,  and 
this  day  lasts  with  him  into  old  age,  even  to 
death;  and  after  death  he  passes  into  heaven 
to  the  Lord  Himself,  and  there,  though  he 


84  HEAVEN 

died  an  old  man,  he  is  restored  to  the  morning 
of  his  life,  and  to  eternity  he  develops  the  be- 
ginnings of  the  wisdom  that  was  implanted  in 
the  natural  world. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n,  766 

The  people  of  heaven  are  continually 
advancing  towards  the  spring-time  of  life; 
and  the  more  thousands  of  years  they  live,  the 
more  delightful  and  happy  is  the  spring  to 
which  they  attain.  Women  who  have  died  old 
and  worn  out  with  age,  and  have  lived  in  faith 
in  the  Lord  and  in  charity  to  the  neighbor, 
come,  with  the  succession  of  years,  more  and 
more  into  the  flower  of  youth  and  early 
womanhood,  and  into  a  beauty  exceeding 
every  idea  of  beauty  ever  formed  through  the 
sight  In  a  word,  to  grow  old  in  heaven  is 
to  grow  young. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  414 


HELL 

"  If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell;  behold,  Thou  art  there." 

— Ps dm,  cxxxix,  8 


V 


HELL  87 


EVIL  IS  HELL 

EVIL  with  man  is  hell  with  him;  for  it 
is  the  same  thing  whether  we  say  evil  or 
hell.    And  as  a  man  is  the  cause  of  his 
own  evil,  therefore  he,  and  not  the  Lord,  also 
leads  himself  into  hell.     So  far  is  the  Lord 
from  leading  man  into  hell,  that  He  delivers 
him  from  it  as  far  as  a  man  does  not  will  and 
love  to  be  in  his  own  evil. 

All  a  man's  will  and  love  remains  with 
him  after  death.  He  who  wills  and  loves  evil 
in  the  world,  wills  and  loves  the  same  evil  in 
the  other  life;  and  then  he  no  longer  suffers 
himself  to  be  withdrawn  from  it.  This  is  the 
reason  that  a  man  who  is  in  evil  is  bound  fast  to 
hell  and  is  actually  there,  too,  in  spirit,  and 
after  death  he  desires  nothing  more  than  to  be 
where  his  evil  is.  After  death,  therefore,  a 
man  casts  himself  into  hell,  and  not  the  Lord. 
— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  547 


EVIL  AND  PUNISHMENT 

ALL  evil  bears  its  punishment  with  it. 
Evil  spirits  are  punished  because  the  fear 
of  punishment  is  the  one  means  of  sub- 
duing   evils    in    this    state.     Exhortation    no 
longer  avails,  nor  instruction,  nor  fear  of  the 
law  nor  fear  for  one's  reputation ;  for  now  the 


88  HELL 

spirit  acts  from  a  nature  which  cannot  be 
coerced  or  broken  except  by  punishment. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  509 

It  is  a  law  in  the  other  life  that  no  one 
shall  become  worse  than  he  had  been  in 
the  world. 

— Arcana  Goelestia,  n,  6559 


GOD  WILLS  THE  DAMNATION  OF 

NONE 

IF  men  could  be  saved  by  immediate  mercy, 
all  would  be  saved,  even  those  in  hell ;  and 
indeed  there  would  be  no  hell,  because  the 
Lord  is  mercy  itself  and  good  itself.    There- 
fore it  is  contrary  to  His  Divine  Nature  to 
say  that  He  can  save  all  immediately,  and  does 
not  save  them.    We  know  from  the  Word  that 
the  Lord  wills  the  salvation  of  all  and  the 
damnation  of  none. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  524 


MASTER  PASSIONS  OF  HELL 

LOVE  of  self  and  love  of  the  world  rule 
in   the   hells   and   also   constitute   them. 
Love  to  the  Lord  and  love  toward  the 
neighbor  rule  in  the  heavens  and  also  constitute 
them.    These  loves  are  diametrically  opposite. 
Love  of  self  consists  in  wishing  well  to  one- 


HELL  89 

self  alone,  and  not  to  others  except  for  the  sake 
of  oneself,  not  even  to  the  Church,  to  one's 
country,  or  to  any  human  society;  also  in 
doing  good  to  them,  but  for  the  sake  of  one's 
reputation,  honor  and  glory.  Unless  he  sees 
these  in  the  services  he  renders  them,  he  says 
in  his  heart,  "Of  what  use  is  it?  Why  should 
I  do  it?  Of  what  advantage  will  it  be  to 
me?",  and  he  leaves  it  undone.  His  delight 
is  only  that  of  self-love.  And  because  the  de- 
light which  springs  from  his  love  makes  the 
life  of  a  man,  therefore  his  life  is  the  life  of 
self;  and  the  life  of  self  is  life  from  man's 
proprium;  and  the  proprium  of  man,  viewed 
in  itself,  is  nothing  but  evil.  Love  of  self  is 
of  such  a  quality,  too,  that,  as  far  as  the  reins 
are  given  it,  it  rushes  on  until  at  length  it 
desires  to  rule  not  only  over  the  whole  earth, 
but  over  the  whole  heaven,  too,  and  over  the 
Divine  Himself. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  nn.  554,  556,  559 


"  OUR  NAME  IS  LEGION  ' 

MEN  have  believed  hitherto  that  there  is 
some  one  devil  who  is  over  the  hells, 
and  that  he  was  created  an  angel  of 
light;  but  that  after  he  turned  rebel,  he  was 
cast  down  with  his  crew  into  hell.    Men  have 
had  this  belief  because  the  Devil  is  named  in 
the  Word,  and  Satan,  and  also  Lucifer,  and 
in  these  passages  the  Word  has  been  under- 
stood according  to  the  sense  of  the  letter,  when 


90  HELL 

yet  hell  is  meant  in  them  by  the  Devil  and 

Satan That  there  is  no  single  Devil  to 

whom  the  hells  are  subject,  is  also  evident  from 
this  fact,  that  all  who  are  in  the  hells,  like  all 
who  are  in  the  heavens,  are  from  the  human 
race ;  and  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  crea- 
tion to  this  time  they  amount  to  myriads  of 
myriads,  every  one  of  whom  is  a  devil  of  a 
sort  according  with  his  opposition  to  the 
Divine  in  the  world. 

— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  544 


COMMUNICATION  WITH  THE 
SPIRITUAL  WORLD 

"  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the  counsel 
of  the  ungodly,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners,  nor 
sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful.  But  his  delight  is  in 
the  law  of  the  Lord;  and  in  His  law  doth  he  meditate 
day  and  night," 

— Psalm,  i,  i,  2 


COMMUNICATION  WITH  SPIRITS     93 


ONE'S  SPIRITUAL  COMPANY 

THE  mind  of  a  man  is  his  spirit  which 
lives  after  death;  and  a  man's  spirit  is 
constantly  in  company  with  spirits  like 
himself  in  the  spiritual  world.  Man  does  not 
know  that  in  respect  to  his  mind  he  is  in  the 
midst  of  spirits  because  the  spirits  with  whom 
he  is  in  company  in  that  world,  think  and  speak 
spiritually.  The  spirit  of  man,  however,  while 
in  the  material  body,  thinks  and  speaks  natur- 
ally; and  spiritual  thought  and  speech  can- 
not be  understood,  nor  perceived,  by  the 
natural  human  being ;  nor  the  reverse.  Hence, 
too,  it  is  that  spirits  cannot  be  seen.  Yet 
when  a  man's  spirit  is  in  society  with 
spirits  in  their  world,  then  he  is  in  spiritual 
thought  and  speech  with  them,  too,  because  his 
inner  mind  is  spiritual,  but  the  outer  natural; 
wherefore  by  his  inner  nature  he  communicates 
with  them,  and  by  his  outer  being  with  men. 
By  this  communication  a  man  perceives  and 
thinks  analytically.  If  there  were  no  such 
communication,  man  would  no  more  think 
than  a  beast,  nor  any  differently  from  a  beast. 
Indeed,  were  all  commerce  with  spirits  cut  off, 
a  man  would  instantly  die. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n,  475 


94  COMMUNICATION  WITH 


"  MINISTERS  OF  HIS,  THAT  DO  HIS 
PLEASURE " 

MAN  is  quite  ignorant  that  he  is  gov- 
erned by  the  Lord  through  angels  and 
spirits,  and  that  there  are  at  least  two 
spirits  with  a  man  and  two  angels.  Through 
the  spirits  a  communication  of  the  man  with 
the  world  of  spirits  is  effected ;  and  through 
the  angels,  with  heaven.  As  long  as  a  man 
is  not  regenerated,  he  is  governed  quite  other- 
wise than  when  he  is  regenerated.  While 
unregenerated,  there  are  evil  spirits  with  him, 
who  dominate  him  so  fully  that  the  angels, 
though  present,  can  scarcely  do  more  than 
guide  him,  so  that  he  shall  not  hurl  himself 
into  the  lowest  evil,  and  bend  him  to  some 
good — to  some  good  by  means  of  his  own 
desires,  indeed,  and  to  some  truth  through 
even  fallacies  of  sense.  Then,  through  the 
spirits  who  are  with  him,  he  has  com- 
munication with  the  world  of  spirits,  but 
not  so  much  with  heaven,  for  the  evil  spirits 
rule  with  him,  and  the  angels  only  avert  their 
rule.  When,  however,  a  man  is  regenerated, 
then  the  angels  rule  and  inspire  in  him  all 
good  and  truth,  and  a  horror  and  dread  of  evil 
and  falsity.  The  angels  lead  the  man  indeed, 
but  serve  only  as  ministers,  for  it  is  the  Lord 
alone,  Who,  by  angels  and  spirits,  governs  man. 
— Arcana  Coelestia,  n.  50 

It  is  an  office  of  the  angels  to  inspire  char- 
ity and  faith  in  a  man,  to  observe  the  direction 


THE  SPIRITUAL  WORLD  95 

his  enjoyments  take,  and  to  restrain  and  bend 
them  to  good,  as  far  as  they  can  in  man's  free 
choice.  They  are  forbidden  to  act  violently, 
and  so  to  break  a  man's  cupidities  and  prin- 
ciples ;  but  are  bidden  to  act  gently.  It  is  also 
an  office  of  theirs  to  govern  evil  spirits  who  are 
from  hell.  When  evil  spirits  infuse  evils  and 
what  is  false,  the  angels  instill  what  is  true  and 
good,  by  which  they  at  least  temper  an  evil. 
Infernal  spirits  are  continually  assaulting,  and 
angels  constantly  giving  protection.  Especially 
do  the  angels  call  forth  goods  and  truths  which 
are  with  a  man,  and  oppose  them  to  the  evils 
and  falsities  which  the  evil  spirits  excite. 
Hence  a  man  is  in  the  midst,  nor  does  he  apper- 
ceive  the  evil  or  the  good;  and  being  in  the 
midst,  is  free  to  turn  himself  to  the  one  or 
to  the  other.  By  such  means  angels  from  the 
Lord  lead  and  protect  a  man,  and  this  every 
moment,  and  every  moment  of  a  moment.  For, 
should  the  angels  intermit  their  care  a  single 
instant,  man  would  be  plunged  into  evil  from 
which  he  could  never  afterward  be  led  forth. 
These  offices  the  angels  do  from  a  love  which 
they  have  from  the  Lord ;  for  they  know  noth- 
ing pleasanter  and  happier  than  to  remove 
evils  from  a  man,  and  to  lead  him  to  heaven. 
That  this  is  their  joy,  see  Luke,  XV,  7. 
Scarcely  any  man  believes  that  the  Lord  has 
such  a  care  for  man,  and  this  continually, 
from  the  first  thread  of  his  life  to  the  last,  and 
on  to  eternity. 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  5992 


96  COMMUNICATION  WITH 


MANY  believe  that  a  man  can  be  taught 
by  the  Lord  through  spirits  who  speak 
with  him.  They  who  believe  so,  and 
will  this  communication,  do  not  know,  how- 
ever, that  it  is  attended  with  danger  to  their 
souls.  While  a  man  is  living  in  the  world,  he 
is  in  the  midst  of  spirits  as  to  his  spirit;  never- 
theless spirits  do  not  know  they  are  with  man, 
nor  a  man  that  he  is  with  spirits.  But  as  soon 
as  spirits  begin  to  speak  with  a  man,  they  come 
out  of  their  spiritual  state  into  the  man's  natu- 
ral state;  and  then  they  know  that  they  are 
with  man,  and  they  unite  themselves  to  the 
thoughts  of  his  affection,  and  they  speak  with 
him  from  those  thoughts.  Thence  it  is  that  the 
spirit  speaking  is  in  the  same  principles  as  the 
man,  whether  these  be  true  or  false.  These 
he  stirs  up,  and  through  his  affection,  united 
to  the  man's,  strongly  confirms  them.  All  this 
shows  the  danger  in  which  a  man  is  who  speaks 
with  spirits,  or  who  manifestly  perceives  their 
operation.  Of  the  nature  of  his  affection,  good 
or  bad,  a  man  is  ignorant,  also  with  what  others 
he  is  associated.  If  his  is  a  pride  of  self- 
intelligence,  the  spirit  favors  every  thought 
from  that  source.  Likewise  there  is  the  favor- 
ing of  principles  which  are  inflamed  from  the 
fire  which  those  have  who  are  not  in  truths 
from  any  genuine  affection  for  them.  When- 
ever from  a  like  affection  a  spirit  favors  a  man's 
thoughts  or  principles,  then  the  former  leads 


THE  SPIRITUAL  WORLD  97 

the  latter,  as  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  until 
both  fall  into  the  ditch. 

It  is  otherwise  with  those  whom  the  Lord 
leads.  He  leads  those  who  love  and  will  truths 
from  Him.  Such  are  enlightened  when  they 
read  the  Word,  for  there  the  Lord  is,  and  He 
speaks  with  every  one  according  to  the  latter's 
apprehension.  When  these  hear  speech  from 
spirits,  as  they  do  sometimes,  they  are  not 
taught,  but  are  led,  and  this  so  prudently  that 
the  man  is  still  left  to  himself.  For  every  man 
is  led  through  the  affections  by  the  Lord,  and 
he  thinks  from  these  freely  as  if  of  himself. 
Were  it  otherwise,  a  man  could  not  be  re- 
formed, nor  could  he  be  enlightened. 

— Apocalypse  Explained,  nn,  1182,  1183 


AN  UNBROKEN  ASSOCIATION 

MARRIED  partners,  who  have  lived  in 
truly  conjugial  love,  are  not  separated 
in  the  death  of  one  of  them.     For  the 
spirit  of  the  deceased  partner  lives  contin- 
ually with  the  spirit  of  the  other,  not  yet 
deceased,  and  this  even  to  the  death  of  the 
other,  when  they  meet  again  and  reunite,  and 
love  each  other  more  tenderly  than  before ;  for 
now  they  are  in  the  spiritual  world. 

— Conjugial  Love,  n.  321 


THE  CHURCH 

"  Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and 
He  will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people, 
and  God  Himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God." 

— Rev.,  xxi,  3 


THE  CHURCH  101 


THF  CHURCH  IN  GOD'S  SIGHT 

THE  Church  is  in  man,  and  not  outside 
of  him ;  and  the  Church  at  large  consists 
of  the  men  who  have  the  Church  in  them. 
— The  Church  consists  of  those  who  from  the 
heart  acknowledge  the  Divine  of  the  Lord, 
who  learn  truths  from  Him  by  the  Word,  and 
do  them. — Every  one  who  lives  in  the  good  of 
charity  and  of  faith  is  a  Church  and  a  King- 
dom of  the  Lord. — The  Church  in  general 
is   constituted    of    those   who    are   severally 
Churches,  however  remote  they  are  from  one 
another. — The  Church  of  the  Lord  is  scattered 
throughout  the  whole  world. 
— Heaven  and  Hell,  n.  $J 
— Apocalypse  Explained,  n.  388 
— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n,  6637;  ib,,  n,  9256 


A  SUCCESSION  OF  CHURCHES 

THERE  have  been  four  Churches  on  this 
earth  since  the  day  of  creation ;  a  first,  to 
be  called  the  Adamic,  a  second,  to  be 
called  the  Noachic;  a  third,  the  Israelitish; 
and  a  fourth,  the  Christian.    After  these  four 
Churches,  a  new  one  will  arise,  which  is  to 
be  truly  Christian,  foretold  in  Daniel  and  in 
the  Apocalypse,  and  by  the  Lord  Himself  in 
the  Evangelists,  and  looked  for  by  the  Apostles. 
— Coronisj  Summary,  I,  VIII 


102  THE  CHURCH 


EARLY  CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS 
DECLINE 

WHEN  a  Church  is  raised  up  by  the 
Lord,  it  is  in  the  beginning  blameless ; 
and  one  then  loves  the  other  as  his 
brother,  as  we  know  of  the  primitive  Church 
after  the  Lord's  advent.  At  that  time,  all  the 
sons  of  the  Church  lived  together  like  brothers, 
and  also  called  one  another  brother,  and 
mutually  loved  each  other.  But  in  the  course 
of  time  charity  diminished,  and  vanished ;  and 
as  it  vanished,  evils  succeeded;  and  together 
with  evils  falsities  insinuated  themselves. 
Hence  came  schisms  and  heresies,  which  would 
never  come  to  be,  were  charity  regnant 
and  alive. 

— Arcana  Gcelestia,  n,  1834 


THE  LORD'S  SECOND  COMING: 
WHEN?    HOW? 

NOW  is  the  Lord's  Second  Coming,  and 
a  New  Church  is  to  be  instituted.    The 
Second  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  not  a  com- 
ing in  Person,  but  in  the  Word,  which  is  from 
Him,   and  is   Himself.    We  read  in  many 
places  that  the  Lord  will  come  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven.   The  "  clouds  of  heaven  "  mean  the 
Word  in  its  natural  sense,  and  "  glory  "  the 
Word  in  its  spiritual  sense,  and  "  power  "  the 
Lord's  power  by  means  of  the  Word.    So  the 


THE  CHURCH  103 

Lord  is  now  to  appear  in  the  Word.  He  is  not 
to  appear  in  Person  because,  since  His  ascen- 
sion into  heaven,  He  is  in  the  Glorified  Hu- 
manity, in  which  He  cannot  appear  to  any 
man,  unless  He  opens  the  eyes  of  his  spirit 
first,  and  this  cannot  be  done  with  any  one  who 
is  in  evils  and  thence  in  falsities.  It  is  vain, 
therefore,  to  believe  that  the  Lord  will  appear 
in  a  cloud  of  heaven  in  Person;  but  He  will 
appear  in  the  Word,  which  is  from  Him,  and 
so  is  Himself. 
— True  Christian  Religion,  nn,  115,  776,  777 

What  occurred  at  the  end  of  the  Jewish 
Church  has  occurred  similarly  now;  for  at  the 
end  of  that  Church,  which  was  when  the  Lord 
came  into  the  world,  the  Word  was  interiorly 
opened.  Interior  Divine  truths  were  revealed 
by  the  Lord,  which  were  to  serve  the  New 
Church  to  be  established  by  Him,  and  did 
serve  it,  too.  To-day,  again,  for  similar 
reasons,  the  Word  has  been  interiorly  opened, 
and  divine  truths  still  more  interior  have  been 
revealed,  which  are  to  serve  a  New  Church, 
which  will  be  called  the  New  Jerusalem. 

— Apocalypse  Explained,  n.  948 


104  THE  CHURCH 


A  NEW  CHURCH 

IT  was  foretold  in  the  Apocalypse  (XXI, 
XXII )  that  at  the  end  of  the  former  Church 
a  New  Church  was  to  be  instituted,  in  which 
this  would  be  the  chief  teaching:  that  God  is 
One  in  Person  as  well  as  in  Essence,  in  Whom 
is  the  Trinity,  and  that  that  God  is  the  Lord. 
This  Church  is  what  is  there  meant  by  the  New 
Jerusalem,  into  which  only  he  can  enter  who 
acknowledges    the    Lord    alone    as    God    of 
Heaven  and  earth. 

— Divine  Providence,  n.  263 

The  descent  of  the  New  Jerusalem  cannot 
take  place  in  a  moment,  but  becomes  a  fact  as 
the  falsities  of  the  former  Church  are  removed. 
For  what  is  new  cannot  enter  where  falsities 
have  previously  been  engendered,  unless  these 
are  eradicated ;  which  will  take  place  with  the 
clergy,  and  so  with  the  laity. 

— True  Christian  Religion,  n.  784 


THE  ULTIMATE  GOAL 

WERE  it  received  as  a  principle,  that 
love  to  the  Lord  and  charity  to  the 
neighbor  are  what  the  whole  Law  hangs 
on  and  are  what  all  the  Prophets  speak  of,  and 
thus  are  the  essentials  of  all  doctrine  and  wor- 
ship, then  the  mind  would  be  enlightened  in 
innumerable  things  in  the  Word,  which  other- 


THE  CHURCH  105 

wise  lie  hidden  in  the  obscurity  of  a  false  prin- 
ciple. In  fact,  heresies  would  be  scattered 
then,  and  out  of  many  one  Church  would  come 
to  be,  however  the  doctrines  flowing  therefrom 
or  leading  thereto,  and  the  rituals,  might  dif- 
fer. Were  the  case  so,  all  men  would  be  gov- 
erned as  a  single  human  being  by  the  Lord ;  for 
all  would  be  as  members  and  organs  of  one 
body,  which,  dissimilar  in  form  and  function 
though  they  are,  still  have  relation  to  one  heart 
only,  whereon  they  each  and  all  depend.  Then, 
in  whatever  doctrine  or  outward  worship  one 
might  be,  he  would  say  of  another,  "  This  man 
is  my  brother.  I  see  that  he  worships  the 
Lord,  and  that  he  is  a  good  man." 

— Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  2385 


MEMORABLE  SAYINGS 


MEMORABLE  SAYINGS  109 


MEMORABLE  SAYINGS 

All  religion  has  relation  to  life;  and  the 
life  of  religion  is  to  do  good. 

Love  in  act  is  work  and  deed. 

Heaven  is  a  kingdom  of  uses. 

No  one  who  believes  in  God  and  lives  well 
is  condemned. 

Shunning  evils  as  sins  is  the  mark  of  faith. 

To  resist  one  evil  is  to  resist  many;  for 
every  evil  is  united  with  countless  evils. 

If  you  wish  to  be  led  by  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence, employ  prudence  as  a  servant  and 
attendant  who  faithfully  dispenses  his  Lord's 
goods. 

Where  men  know  doctrine  and  think 
according  to  it,  there  the  Church  may  be; 
but  where  men  act  according  to  doctrine,  there 
alone  the  Church  is. 

It  is  not  the  desire  of  an  intelligent  man 
to  be  able  to  confirm  whatever  he  pleases ;  but 
to  be  able  to  see  truth  as  truth,  and  falsity  as 
falsity,  and  to  confirm  his  insight,  is  the  way  of 
an  intelligent  man. 

To  reason  only  whether  a  thing  is  so  or 
not,  is  like  reasoning  about  the  fit  of  a  cap  or  a 
shoe  without  ever  putting  it  on. 

It  is  the  essence  of  God's  love  to  love 
others  outside  Himself,  to  desire  to  be  one  with 
them,  and  from  Himself  to  render  them 
blessed. 

The  absence  of  God  from  man  is  no  more 


no  MEMORABLE  SAYINGS 

possible  than  the  absence  of  the  sun  from  the 
earth  through  its  heat  and  light. 

Truths  perish  with  those  who  do  not 
desire  good. 

Peace  has  in  it  confidence  in  the  Lord — 
that  He  governs  all  things,  and  provides  all 
things,  and  leads  to  a  good  end. 

The  Lord  powerfully  influences  the 
humble. 

Innocence  is  willingness  to  be  led  by 
the  Lord. 

One's  distance  from  heaven  is  in  propor- 
tion to  the  measure  of  one's  self-love. 

Peace  in  the  heavens  is  like  spring  in  the 
world,  gladdening  all  things. 

No  two  things  mutually  love  each  other 
more  than  do  truth  and  good. 

Love  consists  in  desiring  to  give  our  own 
to  another  and  in  feeling  as  our  own  his 
delight. 

A  wicked  man  may  shun  evils  as  hurtful; 
none  but  a  Christian  can  shun  them  as  sins. 

If  a  man  studies  the  neighbor  and  the 
Lord  more  than  himself,  he  is  in  a  state  of 
regeneration. 

The  Lord  acts  mediately  through  heaven, 
not  because  he  needs  the  aid  of  the  angels,  but 
that  they  may  have  functions  and  offices,  life 
and  happiness. 

Good  is  like  a  little  flame  which  gives 
light,  and  causes  man  to  see,  perceive  and 
believe. 

Evil  itself  is  disunion. 

To  serve  the  Lord  is  to  be  free. 


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